author
Arthur Leeds
A little-known early 20th-century writer, he moved between pulp fiction and silent-film instruction, leaving behind a small but intriguing body of work. He is best remembered today for a handful of weird tales and for co-authoring a practical guide to writing for the screen.
1 Audiobook
Writing the Photoplay
by J. Berg (Joseph Berg) Esenwein, Arthur Leeds
About the author
Arthur Leeds was an American writer active in the early 1900s. Reliable sources available here point to his work in both fiction and film writing, including Writing the Photoplay, a how-to book on silent-era screen storytelling that he wrote with J. Berg Esenwein.
He also published at least one story in Weird Tales, "The Return of the Undead," and reference sources connect him with H. P. Lovecraft's New York circle, the Kalem Club. That places him on the edges of an important literary scene, even if he never became a major household name.
Some details of his life remain uncertain in the sources I could confirm, including the exact date of his death. What stands out most is his unusual range: he appears as both a working man of early popular culture and a figure remembered by horror and pulp readers for his strange fiction.