John Reed Scott

Born in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on September 8, 1869, John Reed Scott was an American author as well as a lawyer. Reference works and library sources identify him as the writer of a string of popular novels from the 1900s and 1910s, and place his death in Westminster, Maryland, on January 21, 1942.

His fiction leaned toward historical romance and adventure. Confirmed titles include The Colonel of the Red Huzzars, Beatrix of Clare, The Princess Dehra, The Woman in Question, The Impostor, In Her Own Right, The Last Try, The Red Emerald, and The Duke of Oblivion. The recurring appeal of these books is easy to spot: fast plots, high stakes, and a taste for aristocratic settings and dramatic reversals.

Available biographical notes also describe him as a member of the Carroll County, Maryland, bar, and indicate that he served in the Spanish-American War and World War I before retiring in 1929. Even though he is not widely known today, his novels still offer a lively window into the kind of sweeping, courtly popular fiction readers enjoyed in the early 20th century.