author
Matthew M. Colton
1859–1925
Best remembered for lively school and college stories, this early 20th-century writer filled the Frank Armstrong books with football, baseball, friendship, and the rough-and-tumble spirit of student life.
3 Audiobooks
Frank Armstrong at College
by Matthew M. Colton
Frank Armstrong, Drop Kicker
by Matthew M. Colton
Frank Armstrong at Queens
by Matthew M. Colton
About the author
Writing as Matthew M. Colton, he is known today for the Frank Armstrong series, a run of boys' novels that followed one character from school into college. Surviving editions and library records identify him as Matthew M. Colton (1859–1925).
His books center on sports, teamwork, rivalry, and growing up. Titles such as Frank Armstrong at Queens, Frank Armstrong at College, and Frank Armstrong, Drop Kicker show a strong interest in school life and athletics, especially football and baseball, with the Yale setting giving some of the stories an extra collegiate energy.
Much of Colton's personal life is hard to confirm from easily available sources, but his fiction has remained accessible through public-domain archives and reprints. That lasting availability suggests the appeal of his work is still easy to recognize: brisk plots, competitive games, and an older style of adventure written for young readers.