Frank H. Converse

Frank H. Converse was an American writer born on February 19, 1843, and he died on December 13, 1889. Reference works on speculative fiction describe him as a contributor to American boys' papers, and surviving catalogs and library records show that he wrote a stream of adventure stories and novels in the 1880s and 1890s.

His best-known work today is probably Van; or, In Search of an Unknown Race, first serialized in The Golden Argosy in 1887 and later published in book form. That novel places him among early writers of "lost race" fiction, while other titles linked to him—such as The Island Treasure, The Lost Gold Mine, The Mystery of a Diamond, and In Southern Seas—show the same taste for peril, travel, and discovery.

Some details of his life are still hard to confirm from easily available sources, so the picture we have is mostly of the work itself: a prolific storyteller writing for young readers who loved sea adventures, hidden riches, and imagined places just beyond the map.