Description

Rideout (1877-1927) was an American author of novels, short stories and novellas, and a biographical memoir. Many of his stories appeared in The Saturday Evening Post. At school his ability caught the attention of his English teacher, a cousin of Harvard professor of English Charles Townsend Copeland, and she and Copeland encouraged the people of Rideout's hometown of Calais, Maine to lend him the money to enter Harvard which he did in 1895, the first member of his family to attend college. He became Editor-in-Chief of The Harvard Monthly and after graduating as Class Odist in 1899 was an instructor in the Harvard English Department. After four years his college debts were repaid and he turned his back on an academic career and, having already had two short stories accepted by The Atlantic Monthly, determined to become a writer. In order to gather material, he set off on a six month tour of the Far East under contract to the American Woolen Co. reporting on jute mills in the Philippines, Indonesia and India, before returning via Europe. Back in the US, he joined his brother in California where he met his future wife, also a writer, later raising a family in Sausalito. The inspiration for Rideout's work came from two main sources - his native Maine and the exotic locations he had visited - and it is clear from his writing that he found ordinary people of more interest that high society. One of his earliest works, this novel was first published in 1907.