author
Octavus Roy Cohen
1891–1959
A hugely prolific American storyteller, he moved from engineering and journalism into full-time writing and went on to publish dozens of novels, story collections, plays, and screenplays. His work ranged from detective fiction to widely read magazine stories, and it also reflects the racial attitudes and stereotypes of its era.
1 Audiobook
Midnight
by Octavus Roy Cohen
About the author
Born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1891, he studied engineering at Clemson before working in journalism and later practicing law for a short time. He eventually turned fully to writing, building a remarkably productive career that connected Southern settings, newspaper-sharpened storytelling, and a strong feel for popular fiction.
He became known for an enormous output that included more than 60 novels and short-story collections, along with plays and film scripts. Readers especially remember his detective stories and his magazine fiction, much of it published in major outlets such as The Saturday Evening Post, and some of his work was adapted for the screen.
Today, his career is usually seen in two ways at once: as that of a successful and versatile popular writer, and as a figure whose stories about Black characters often relied on dialect and stereotypes that are troubling to modern readers. That mix makes him both historically notable and worth approaching with context.