author
George Horton
1860–1942
Best known as an American diplomat in Greece and the Ottoman Empire, he also wrote memoir, poetry, and sharp firsthand accounts of the turmoil he witnessed around Smyrna. His life joined literature, journalism, and public service in a way that gives his books unusual immediacy.
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About the author
Born in New York on October 11, 1859, George Horton built a career that moved between writing and diplomacy. Before and alongside his government service, he worked as a journalist and literary figure, and his published work included poetry as well as memoir and political writing.
Horton served in the United States diplomatic service in posts connected with Greece and the Ottoman Empire, including Athens and Smyrna. He is especially remembered for his time as U.S. consul or consul general at Smyrna, where he witnessed the violence and upheaval surrounding the city's destruction in 1922.
Those experiences shaped the books for which many readers know him today, including Recollections Grave and Gay and The Blight of Asia. He died on June 5, 1942, leaving behind work that blends eyewitness testimony with the voice of a practiced man of letters.