author
Austin Potter
1842–1913
A Methodist minister turned storyteller, he wrote with a clear moral purpose and a strong concern for the damage alcohol could do to families and communities. His best-known novel brings that reform-minded spirit into a dramatic nineteenth-century tale.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Austin Potter (1842–1913) is best remembered for From Wealth to Poverty; Or, the Tricks of the Traffic. A Story of the Drink Curse, a novel first published in 1884. Surviving library and book records identify him as both an author and a Reverend, and archival material describes him as Rev. Austin Potter.
The work he is known for reflects the temperance concerns of its time, focusing on the harm caused by drink and the social pressures surrounding it. That blend of fiction and moral reform gives his writing a direct, purposeful tone that still makes him an interesting figure for readers curious about nineteenth-century religious and social literature.
Confirmed biographical details are limited in the sources I found, so this picture is necessarily brief. Still, the available records consistently connect him with Methodist ministry and with the authorship of From Wealth to Poverty, which remains the clearest window into his life and concerns.