- Listenly
- Public Library
- All Authors
- Francis Neilson
author
Francis Neilson
1867–1961
A self-made man of the theater who later stepped into politics, he built an unusually varied career as a playwright, stage director, lecturer, and prolific author. His life moved from the stage to Parliament and then into decades of writing on public affairs and social reform.
2 Audiobooks
A Butterfly on the Wheel: A Novel
by Guy Thorne, Edward G. (Edward George) Hemmerde, Francis Neilson
Blue and Purple
by Francis Neilson
About the author
Born in Birkenhead, England, in 1867, Francis Neilson was born Francis Butters and later took his mother's surname. He first made his name in the theater, working as an actor, playwright, and stage director in Britain and the United States.
Neilson also entered public life and served as a member of the British House of Commons in the early 1910s. Alongside politics, he remained deeply engaged with writing and lecturing, and he became especially associated with the Georgist movement.
Over the course of his long career, he produced a large body of work, including books, plays, and opera librettos. He died in New York in 1961, remembered as a remarkably versatile figure whose work crossed literature, theater, and political thought.