author
Charles Phelps Cushing
1884–1973
A journalist, photographer, and practical writing guide author, he moved easily between reporting, magazine work, and books. Best known today for If You Don't Write Fiction, he wrote with the grounded perspective of someone who knew the publishing world from the inside.
1 Audiobook
If you don't write fiction
by Charles Phelps Cushing
About the author
Born in Mendota, Illinois, in 1884, Charles Phelps Cushing built a varied career in American journalism and writing. Reliable records connect him with early newspaper work at the Kansas City Star, later magazine and editorial work, and a long freelance career that drew on both reporting and literary interests.
He is especially remembered for If You Don't Write Fiction (1920), a book for writers that looks beyond the novel and short story to the wider field of magazine and nonfiction work. He also wrote A Birthday Book of Kansas City, 1821–1921, showing his interest in local history as well as practical authorship.
Sources from library and archival collections also identify him as a photographer, which helps explain the wide-ranging, observant quality of his work. Cushing died in 1973, leaving behind a career that crossed journalism, photography, and books for readers and working writers alike.