Switch to EncyclopediaClose XSCOTT, LEROY: 1875-1929.
"Leroy Scott … author, was born in Fairmount, Ind., the son of Eli J. and
Eleanor (Reader) Scott. After graduating from
Indiana University in 1897, he
worked for a few months on a Louisiana newspaper owned by his brother and then went
to Chicago, where he was a reporter for the CHICAGO JOURNAL. In 1900 and 1901 he was assistant editor of the
WOMAN'S HOME COMPANION. He had developed an interest in settlement work as
a result of living at Hull House in Chicago, and in 1902
he became assistant headworker of the University Settlement, New York City . Here he met Miriam Finn, whom he married on
June 24, 1904; they had two daughters and a son.
"When in 1904 he gave up settlement work to devote
himself to writing, he did not give up his interest in social reform. His first
novel, The Walking Delegate (1905), showed not merely his
confidence in organized labor but also his hope for far-reaching social
reorganization. In To Him That Hath (1907) he revealed the
difficulties of a man who has been in prison, and in Counsel for the Defense (1912) he described a woman's struggle for economic
independence. The Shears of Destiny (1910) was concerned
with the Russian revolutionary movement and was based on Scott's
observations, made during a visit to Russia with his wife in 1905-06. From 1904 to
1912 he wrote frequently for the magazines on such topics as
unemployment, life insurance, and strike-breaking. After his return from Russia he
contributed several articles to the OUTLOOK and to EVERYBODY'S on
conditions in that country, and especially on the activities of the revolutionaries.
In short, he is to be numbered among the muck-rakers. He was always moderate in his
methods, but a strong social purpose informed what he wrote and is to be observed in
his novels as well as his articles. It also found expression in other activities,
for he was interested in organizing the Woman's Trade Union League, an
active worker for child-labor laws, and one of the founders and an executive of the
Intercollegiate Socialist Society. When the muck-raking
movement declined, he took advantage of another form of popular fiction. In Partners
of the Night (1916) he dealt with crime and its detection,
and the success of the book encouraged him to write a series of stories about the
activities of criminals and policemen. These novels were based on an exact knowledge
of criminal methods, derived from careful investigation, and all of them indicated
the need for changes in the social structure and in the handling of offenders
against the law; although the moral may not have been plain to most of
Scott's readers, it was constantly in his mind. His last novel, The Trail
of Glory (1926), dealt with some of the problems of an
amateur tennis champion. He was drowned at Chateaugay Lake, N. Y. At his best he was
a skillful story-teller, but he commonly employed romantic and improbable plots,
showed no great insight into character, and had no stylistic distinction. He frankly
and successfully competed with writers whose sole aim was to divert their readers;
his work is on a higher level than theirs only because of the sincerity and firmness
of his social purpose …"
Condensed from G. H., Dictionary of American Biography, Vol.
XVI.
- The Walking Delegate. New York,
1905.
Search "The Walking Delegate" by SCOTT, LEROY: 1875-1929. in:
Close X - To Him That Hath. New York,
1907.
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Close X - The Shears of Destiny. New York,
1910.
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Close X - Counsel for the Defense. New
York, 1912.
Search "Counsel for the Defense" by SCOTT, LEROY: 1875-1929. in:
Close X - No. 13 Washington Square.
Boston, 1914.
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Close X - Partners of the Night. New York,
1916.
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Close X - Mary Regan. Boston, 1918.
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Close X - A Daughter of Two Worlds; a Novel of New York Life.
Boston, 1919.
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Close X - Children of the Whirlwind.
Boston, 1921.
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Close X - Cordelia the Magnificent. New
York, 1923.
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Close X - The Heart of Katie O'Doone.
Boston, 1925.
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Close X - Folly's Gold. Boston,
1926.
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Close X - The Trail of Glory. Boston,
1926.
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Close X - The Living Dead Man. New York,
1929.
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