author
Charles Phelps Cushing
1884–1973
Best known for the practical writing guide If You Don't Write Fiction, this American writer and photographer moved easily between journalism, magazine work, and visual storytelling. His career gives a glimpse of an era when freelancers often had to be versatile to make a living.
1 Audiobook
If you don't write fiction
by Charles Phelps Cushing
About the author
Born in 1884 and living until 1973, Charles Phelps Cushing was an American writer and photographer. Records connected with his work describe him as a journalist and magazine writer, and library listings show that he published both If You Don't Write Fiction (1920) and A Birthday Book of Kansas City, 1821-1921.
Cushing seems to have worked across several kinds of media rather than staying in a single lane. Biographical and catalog sources link him to newspaper reporting, editorial work, freelance writing, and photography, which fits the broad, practical tone of his best-known book about writing for publication.
He is also remembered visually as well as in print: a 1914 portrait photograph of him by Arnold Genthe survives in major library collections. Taken together, the surviving books, catalog records, and photographic archives suggest a working author who understood both the craft of writing and the realities of earning a living from it.