author
Houghton Townley
A British novelist and magazine editor of the late Victorian and Edwardian years, he wrote popular fiction full of romance, intrigue, and high-stakes drama. Several of his stories reached the screen in the silent-film era, showing how well his plots suited vivid, fast-moving storytelling.
1 Audiobook
The Scarlet Feather
by Houghton Townley
About the author
Born in Islington, London, in 1866, Houghton Townley built a career as both a writer and an editor. He worked with Alfred Harmsworth's publishing ventures and was associated with the early British comic paper Comic Cuts, giving him a place in the busy world of popular journalism as well as fiction.
As a novelist, he wrote works including The Gay Lord Waring, The Bishop's Emeralds, The Splendid Coward, and The Scarlet Feather. His fiction was clearly made for drama: several of his stories were adapted into silent films in the 1910s, helping carry his work to a wider audience.
Townley died in Esher, Surrey, on December 8, 1938. Though not a household name today, he belongs to a generation of authors who helped shape early 20th-century popular entertainment across both print and film.