author
Harrison Rhodes
1871–1929
A Harvard-educated American man of letters who moved easily between books, magazines, and the stage, he is best remembered for lively travel writing and for co-writing the hit play A Gentleman from Mississippi. His career stretched from publishing work in Chicago and London to Broadway successes and smart, observant books about American places and people.
1 Audiobook
A Gentleman from Mississippi
by Thomas A. (Thomas Alfred) Wise, Harrison Rhodes, Frederick R. Toombs
About the author
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1871, he studied at Harvard and went on to build a varied literary career that mixed publishing, journalism, travel writing, and drama. Sources from library and biographical records describe him working in publishing in Chicago, later representing American magazines and publishers in London, and eventually writing books and plays of his own.
His books often turned a curious, sociable eye on places and everyday life in the United States. Titles associated with him include A Guide to Florida for Tourists, Sportsmen and Settlers, In Vacation America, American Towns and People, and A Gift Book for My Mother. He also found a wide audience in the theater: A Gentleman from Mississippi, written with Thomas A. Wise, opened on Broadway in 1908 and had a long run, and The Willow Tree, written with J. H. Benrimo, was later adapted into a silent film.
He died in Hereford, England, in 1929. Even in brief surviving accounts, his work suggests a writer who enjoyed movement between worlds—America and England, page and stage, social observation and entertainment.