author
Rowland Wright
1862–1942
A largely forgotten early-20th-century novelist, this author is best known today for The Disappearance of Kimball Webb, a mystery that mixes suspense with a sharp sense of social life.
1 Audiobook
The Disappearance of Kimball Webb
by Rowland Wright
About the author
Rowland Wright was an American author born in 1862 and died in 1942. Reliable catalog and bibliography records for his work are sparse, but multiple library-style sources identify him as the author of The Disappearance of Kimball Webb.
That novel has survived especially well because it was digitized by Project Gutenberg, helping keep Wright's name in circulation long after most biographical details faded from view. The book is usually described as a mystery involving the sudden disappearance of a playwright, with elements of missing-person suspense and early-20th-century social fiction.
Like many writers whose lives are less documented than their books, Wright is remembered mainly through the work itself rather than a widely preserved public biography. For audiobook listeners, that can be part of the charm: a chance to discover a writer from another era through the story that outlasted him.