Courtney Ryley Cooper

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1886, Courtney Ryley Cooper built an unusually varied career as a circus performer, journalist, publicist, and author. He became especially well known for writing about crime and criminals, and he published more than 30 books during his lifetime.

Cooper also had deep ties to the American circus world. He worked with Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus as a publicist, and that firsthand experience gave his writing an energetic, insider quality. Alongside his nonfiction, he wrote fiction, short stories, magazine pieces, and screenplays.

He died in New York City in 1940. Today, he is remembered as a lively popular writer whose subjects ranged from public enemies and police work to circus life and adventure.