author
Frank W. Doughty
A hugely prolific American popular writer, he helped shape the fast-paced world of dime novels and detective fiction at the turn of the 20th century. He is especially linked with the long-running Old King Brady stories and also published practical nonfiction under the name Frank W. Doughty.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in Brooklyn in 1850, Francis Worcester Doughty wrote under the name Frank W. Doughty and became one of the busiest authors in American popular fiction. He is best known for writing Old King Brady detective stories for publisher Frank Tousey, and accounts of his career describe him as astonishingly productive, with around 1,500 novels to his name.
His work ranged beyond detective adventures. He also wrote science-fiction tales, nonfiction books, and later worked in early film, including episodes of the serial Zudora in 1914. That mix of pulp storytelling and screenwriting places him among the adaptable commercial writers who moved easily between new forms of mass entertainment.
Today, he is remembered both for his place in dime-novel history and for public-domain works that are still widely available through libraries such as Project Gutenberg and Wikisource. For audiobook listeners, he offers a glimpse into an era of brisk plotting, sensational mysteries, and practical turn-of-the-century writing.