Harris Merton Lyon circa 1909

Harris Merton Lyon (1882–1916) was an American short story writer.

Biography

Harris Merton Lyon was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1882.[1] He attended the University of Missouri while working at a restaurant and laundrette.[1] By the early 1900s, he moved to New York City to work as a journalist and as a short story writer.[1] His stories were published in Broadway Magazine, edited by Theodore Dreiser, and later in McClure's, Collier's, The Smart Set,[1] and The Illustrated Sunday Magazine.[2][3] In 1908, he published his first collection of short stories, Sardonics, followed by Graphics in 1913.[1]

A newspaper from February 1908 reproduced a photo of a 17-year-old Japanese woman named Hyacinth Tawana, who the caption said was coming to America to marry Lyon. The caption stated Lyon "had rescued his bride-to-be from a very perilous situation in Japan, and the romance followed."[4]

In 1913, he moved to a farm in Colebrook, Connecticut and started writing a series of anonymous letters for Reedy's Mirror.[5] He died of Bright's disease three years later.[1]

Theodore Dreiser wrote a portrait based on Lyon in Twelve Men.[1] Dreiser nicknamed him 'Maupassant, Jr'.[6][7]

Bibliography

  • Sardonics (1908)
  • Graphics (1913)

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Robert Coltrane, 'LYON, HARRIS MERTON', in A Theodore Dreiser encyclopedia, Keith Newlin (ed.), Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003, p. 239
  2. ↑ Edward Joseph Harrington O'Brien, The Best American Short Stories ... and the Yearbook of the American Short Story, Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin, 1916, p. vii
  3. ↑ Edward J. O'Brien, The Best Short Stories of 1915, Bastian Books, 2008, p. 155
  4. ↑ "Photo Caption, page 6". Bedford Democrat [Bedford, Virginia]. February 27, 1908.
  5. ↑ Max J. Puzel, The Man in the Mirror: William Marion Reedy and His Magazine, University of Missouri Press, 1998, pp. 256-259
  6. ↑ Missouri Historical Society, The bulletin - Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society, 1969, v. 26, p. 77
  7. ↑ Jeremy Loving, The Last Titan: A Life of Theodore Dreiser, Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 2005, p. 186


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