author
Paul Dickey
1885–1933
Best remembered for lively Broadway melodramas and mystery plays, this American writer moved easily between the stage and early Hollywood. His best-known work, The Ghost Breaker, helped shape a whole line of haunted-house adventure stories that followed.
2 Audiobooks
The Ghost Breaker: A Novel Based Upon the Play
by Charles Goddard, Paul Dickey
The Ghost Breaker: A Melodramatic Farce in Four Acts
by Paul Dickey, Charles Goddard
About the author
Born in Chicago in 1883, Paul Dickey built a varied career as an actor, director, playwright, and screenwriter. He studied at the University of Michigan, where he was also active in athletics, before making his name in the theater world.
Dickey became known for stage hits including The Ghost Breaker, The Misleading Lady, and The Broken Wing. His work often blended suspense, comedy, and brisk theatrical action, which made it especially well suited for adaptation during the silent-film era and the early years of talking pictures.
Alongside his writing, he also worked as a performer and had an interest in aviation. He died in New York in January 1933, but his reputation has lasted through the continued life of his plays and their film versions.