1. Harold MacGrath was a bestselling and prolific American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter.
16 Facts About Harold MacGrath
1. 2.
Harold MacGrath sometimes completed more than one novel per year for the mass market, covering romance, spies, mystery, and adventure.
3.
Harold MacGrath was the first nationally known writer to be commissioned to write original screenplays for the new film industry.
4.
Harold MacGrath continued to write novels for the mass market about love, adventure, mystery, spies, and the like at an average rate of more than one a year.
5.
Harold MacGrath had three more books that were among the top ten bestselling books of the year.
6.
Harold MacGrath continued to have short stories published in such venues until his death in 1932.
7.
In 1912, Harold MacGrath became one of the first nationally known authors to write directly for the movies when he was hired by the American Film Company to create an original screenplay for a short film in the Western genre, titled The Vengeance That Failed.
8.
Harold MacGrath's work was so popular that eighteen of his forty novels and three of his short stories were adapted as films.
9.
Harold MacGrath wrote the original screenplays for another four movies.
10.
Harold MacGrath's book was adapted as a Broadway play, titled Boris Karlov.
11.
Harold MacGrath became a wealthy man because of his success as a writer.
12.
Harold MacGrath traveled extensively internationally, but was based in Syracuse, New York.
13.
In "The Short Autobiography of a Deaf Man", an essay published in The Saturday Evening Post, Harold MacGrath wrote about having struggled early in life as a result of a hearing impairment.
14.
At a time when deaf people were often considered as lacking intellectual acuity because of difficulty in communications, Harold MacGrath had concealed this condition from his employer and others.
15.
Harold MacGrath died at his home in Syracuse a few months after publishing this article.
16.
Harold MacGrath's coffin was held for viewing in St Paul's Episcopal Church in Syracuse, before a 2 pm funeral service on November 5,1932.