Charles Somerville

Born in New Orleans in 1876, Charles Cecil Lee D’Montrol Somerville began working in journalism while still a teenager, starting out at a newspaper in Mount Vernon, New York. He later settled in New York City and worked as a reporter for major papers including the Evening Journal, the New York American, and The World.

Alongside newspaper work, he wrote and illustrated books of his own. Records for his books show a varied output that included fiction and satire, with works such as The Shriek and A Woman’s Way.

Somerville died in 1931. Although he is not widely remembered today, the outline of his career suggests a writer shaped by the quick rhythms of the newsroom and drawn to storytelling that entertained as much as it observed.