author
Richard Linthicum
1859–1934
A newspaper and magazine writer who turned current events, adventure, and performance pieces into lively reading for a mass audience. His books range from frontier fiction to dramatic recitations and fast-moving accounts of world affairs and disaster.
1 Audiobook
Complete Story of the San Francisco Horror
by Richard Linthicum, Samuel Fallows, Trumbull White
About the author
Born in Maryland in 1859, he was educated in Baltimore and at Liberty Academy, and began his working life with the United States Weather Bureau before moving into newspaper and magazine writing. By the 1880s he was contributing articles and stories to periodicals, building a career that mixed journalism with popular literary work.
His books show a wide range of interests. He published frontier fiction such as The One Lunged Man of Buckskin Joe, edited and compiled performance collections including Best Recitations and The Dramatic Reciter, and wrote or helped produce topical volumes like War Between Japan and Russia and Complete Story of the San Francisco Horror. The pattern across his work is clear: he wrote for general readers who wanted vivid, accessible storytelling.
He died in Washington, D.C., in 1934. Today, he is remembered mainly through the many public-domain volumes that preserve his blend of journalism, entertainment, and popular history.