E
Edward Noyes Wescott
writer
- Born:
- 1846-09-27, Syracuse, New York, USA
- Died:
- 1900-03-31, Syracuse, New York, USA
- Professions:
- writer
Biography
Edward Noyes Wescott spent his days balancing ledgers in upstate New York; at night, propped against a sanatorium pillow, he traded columns of figures for the exploits of a shrewd, small-town horse-trader named David Harum. The manuscript, scratched out between bouts of tuberculosis, was completed in the last weeks of 1896. Wescott died before the ink was dry on the first edition; two springs later, in 1898, the book ambled into bookstores without him. Readers took to its brass-tacks charm: by Pearl Harbor the tale had galloped past the million-copy mark and inspired two Hollywood outings, ensuring that while the banker never saw opening day, his yarn became currency far sturdier than any he’d once handled.
