Editing Merian C. Cooper (section)

==Early life==
Merian Caldwell Cooper was born in [[Jacksonville, Florida]], to lawyer John C. Cooper and Mary Caldwell.<ref name="DArc" /> He was the youngest of three children. At age six, Cooper decided that he wanted to be an explorer after hearing stories from the book ''Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa''.<ref name="living dangerously" />{{rp|10,14}} He was educated at [[The Lawrenceville School]] in New Jersey and graduated in 1911.<ref name="living dangerously" />{{rp|19}}<ref name="lawrenceville school">{{cite web|title=Notable Alumni|url=http://www.lawrenceville.org/about/history/notable-alumni/index.aspx|website=The Lawrenceville School|access-date=11 July 2016|archive-date=November 9, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161109003646/http://www.lawrenceville.org/about/history/notable-alumni/index.aspx|url-status=dead}}</ref>

After graduation, Cooper received a prestigious appointment to the [[U.S. Naval Academy]],<ref name="living dangerously" />{{rp|19}} but was expelled during his senior year for "hell raising and for championing air power".<ref name="monkey back">{{cite news |last=Smith |first=Dinitia |title=Getting That Monkey Off His Creator's Back |date=August 13, 2005 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/13/movies/MoviesFeatures/13kong.html |work=The New York Times}}</ref> In 1916, Cooper worked for the ''Minneapolis Daily News'' as a reporter, where he met [[Delos Lovelace]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Lovelace|first1=Delos|last2=Wallace|first2=Edgar|title=King Kong|date=2005|publisher=Modern Library|location=New York|isbn=978-0-345-48496-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pia9EEgSk00C&pg=PR12|access-date=14 November 2016}}</ref> In the next few years, he also worked at the ''Des Moines Register-Leader'' and the ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch''.<ref name="living dangerously" />{{rp|22}}