Francis Worcester Doughty

Born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 5, 1850, Francis Worcester Doughty became one of the busiest writers in American popular fiction. He wrote for the thriving dime-novel market and is especially associated with detective stories, including work connected with the long-running Old King Brady series.

Sources on his career describe him as extraordinarily productive, with around 1,500 novels attributed to him. He also wrote some early science-fiction adventures, and readers remembered his knack for punchy plotting and memorable endings.

Later in life, Doughty moved into screenwriting during the silent-film era. He contributed to serial storytelling for Thanhouser, including episodes of Zudora, showing how easily his sensational, episode-driven style carried from cheap print to the new medium of film. He died on October 30, 1917, in Cresskill, New Jersey.