author
Norval Richardson
1877–1940
A Mississippi-born novelist and diplomat, he wrote popular early-20th-century fiction while also serving in American embassies in Rome, Lisbon, and Tokyo. His career mixed literary storytelling with years spent observing life abroad.
1 Audiobook
The Lead of Honour
by Norval Richardson
About the author
Born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, in 1877, Norval Richardson built a career as a novelist during the early 1900s. His books included The Heart of Hope, The Lead of Honour, The World Shut Out, Pagan Fire, The Cave Woman, and Living Abroad: The Adventures of an American Family.
Richardson also worked in the U.S. diplomatic service. Contemporary reference sources and biographical notices connect him with embassy posts in Rome, Lisbon, and Tokyo between 1916 and 1924, suggesting that his years overseas ran alongside some of his most productive writing years.
He died in 1940 and is buried in Vicksburg. Though he is not widely read today, his novels offer a window into the tastes, settings, and international outlook of American popular fiction in the early twentieth century.