Henry Sydnor Harrison

Born in 1880, he was an American novelist and short-story writer whose best-known book, Queed, became a major success in the 1910s. He also wrote novels including V.V.'s Eyes, Angela's Business, and Saint Teresa.

Before turning fully to fiction, he studied law and worked in journalism, experiences that helped give his writing a lively feel for public life and social ambition. His novels often blend romance, satire, and a close look at the pressures of status and respectability.

He died in 1930 at just 49 years old. Though he is less widely read now than he was in his own day, he remains an interesting voice from the era when American popular fiction was beginning to grapple with a fast-changing modern society.