Harry Leon Wilson
| Harry Leon Wilson | |
|---|---|
Film producer Benjamin B. Hampton with authors Kathleen Norris and her son "Buddy," Harry Leon Wilson, and Charles Gilman Norris
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| Born |
1 May 1867 Oregon, Illinois, United States |
| Died | 28 June 1939 (aged 72) Carmel, California, United States |
| Occupation | Novelist/Dramatist |
| Years active | 1886–1939 |
| Spouse(s) | Wilbertine Nesselrode Teters (1898-1900) Rose O'Neill (1902-1907) Helen MacGowan Cooke (1912-1927) |
Harry Leon Wilson (May 1, 1867 – June 28, 1939) was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his novels Ruggles of Red Gap and Merton of the Movies. His novel Bunker Bean helped popularize the term flapper.
Harry Leon Wilson was born in Oregon, Illinois, the son of Samuel and Adeline (née Kidder). Samuel was a newspaper publisher, and Harry learned to set type at an early age. He began work as a stenographer after leaving home at sixteen. He worked his way west through Topeka, Omaha, Denver, and eventually to California. He was a contributor to the histories of Hubert Howe Bancroft, and became the private secretary to Virgil Bogue.
In December 1886, Wilson's story The Elusive Dollar Bill was accepted by Puck magazine. He continued to contribute to Puck and became assistant editor in 1892. Henry Cuyler Bunner died in 1896 and Wilson replaced him as editor. The publication of The Spenders allowed Wilson to quit Puck in 1902 and devote himself full-time to writing.
I had to live ten years in New York. It was then a simple town, with few street lights north of Forty-second street. Now the place is pretty terrible to me, perhaps the ugliest city in the world. I decided that the only way to get out of New York was to write a successful novel. So I tried with The Spenders and when I got a substantial advance from publishers, I quit my job and beat it for the high hills of Colorado.
—Harry Leon Wilson
Wilson returned to New York where he met Booth Tarkington in 1904, and Tarkington and Wilson traveled together to Europe in 1905. The two completed the play The Man from Home in 1906 in Paris. The play was a resounding success and was followed by more collaborations with Tarkington, but none repeated the success of the first. Wilson was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1908.
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