Leroy Scott (May 11, 1875 – July 21, 1929) was an American writer of novels and screenplays.

Leroy Scott
Scott in a 1919 ad
Born(1875-05-11)May 11, 1875
Fairmont, Indiana
DiedJuly 21, 1929(1929-07-21) (aged 54)
Merrill, New York
NationalityAmerican
OccupationWriter
Known forNovels, Screenplays
SpouseMiriam Finn

Biography

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Scott was born in Fairmount, Indiana, on 11 May 1875. His father was a minister with the Religious Society of Friends. He graduated from Indiana University in 1897. His writing career began with three years of experience as a reporter; he worked at a Louisiana newspaper owned by his brother.[1] Later (1900–01) he became assistant editor of the Woman’s Home Companion.

Scott was also a social activist. After gaining experience at the Hull House in Chicago, Scott served as assistant headworker at the University Settlement House in New York City in 1902–03. It was there that he met—and later married on 27 June 1904—Miriam Finn,[2] a Russian Jewish writer.[3] Around this same time Scott was an officer of the Intercollegiate Socialist Society, of which he was a founder.[1] After his departure from the University Settlement, Scott and his wife came to live in Greenwich Village at "A Club", a writers' cooperative housed in an old mansion on Fifth Avenue[4] that became known as a "radical center."[5] They had one child, a daughter.

In 1906, Scott helped arrange accommodations for Maxim Gorky during his visit to the United States.[6] In 1907, Scott and his wife visited Russia.[7]

To research his book about labor relations, The Walking Delegate (1905), Scott joined the Structural Iron Workers Union.[8]

In addition to novels, Scott became involved in the movie industry, where he accumulated numerous writing credits, as well as an acting credit in one film. When Goldwyn Pictures determined a need to produce movies in New York as well as on the west coast, Scott's Partners of the Night was chosen as the first work.[9]

Scott drowned in Lake Chateaugay, near Plattsburgh, New York, on 21 July 1929.[10]

Works

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  • Children of the Whirlwind
  • The Walking Delegate (1905)
  • To Him that Hath (1907)
  • The Shears of Destiny (1910)
  • Vocations, ed. William DeWitt Hyde. Hall and Locke Company. Boston. Vol. 1. The Mechanic Arts. Richard C. Maclauren ed. (1911). “Selden’s Explosion Buggy”. p. 343
  • Counsel for the Defense (1912)
  • No. 13 Washington Square (1914)
  • Graft (1915)
  • Partners of the Night (1916)
  • The Sturdy Oak; a composite novel of American politics by fourteen American authors (ch xiv) (1917)
  • Mary Regan (1918)
  • A Daughter of Two Worlds: A Novel of New York Life (1919)
  • Cordelia the Magnificent (1923)
  • The Heart of Katie O”Doone (1925)
  • Folly’s Gold (1926)
  • The Trail of Glory (1926)
  • The Living Dead Man (1929)

References

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  1. ^ a b Dictionary of American Biography (Vol. VIII). 1935. p. 496.
  2. ^ Lehman, Marjorie (1 Mar 2009). "Miriam Finn Scott". Jewish Women; a comprehensive historical encyclopedia. Retrieved 17 Jan 2011.
  3. ^ Richman, George J. (1916). History of Hancock County, Indiana; its people, industries and institutions. Greenfield, IN: Wm. Mitchell Printing Co. pp. 432.
  4. ^ Schmidt, Barbara. "Mark Twain on Czars, Siberia, and the Russian Revolution". www.twainquotes.com. Retrieved 8 Aug 2023.
  5. ^ McFarland, Gerald W. (2001). Inside Greenwich Village: A New York City Neighborhood, 1898-1918. University of Massachusetts Press. p. 127. ISBN 1-55849-502-9.
  6. ^ Yedlin, Tovah (1999). Maxim Gorky: a political biography. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. p. 73. ISBN 0-275-96605-4.
  7. ^ "Notable books in the presses ... Leroy Scott's To Him that Hath". The New York Times. 22 June 1907. Retrieved 20 Jan 2011.
  8. ^ "Our Own Times". The Reader. 6. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company: 456. 1905. Retrieved 17 Jan 2011.
  9. ^ "Goldwyn Soon Producing in East". Motion Picture News. 20–24: 3613. 15 Nov 1919. Retrieved 17 Jan 2011.
  10. ^ "Milestones". Time Magazine. 29 Jul 1929. Archived from the original on October 27, 2010. Retrieved 16 Jan 2011.
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