Melville Davisson Post(1869-1930)
- Writer
American writer Melville Davisson Post was born in Romine Mills, WV, in
1871. His father was a farmer, and Melville worked on his family's farm
while attending local schools. He received his B.A. from West Virginia
University in 1891, and his law degree the next year. He practiced
criminal defense and corporate law in West Virginia for several years,
but in 1896 he began his writing career. He used his experience as a
lawyer as background for "The Strange Schemes of Randolph Mason"
(1896), a volume of short stories about a crooked lawyer. The stories
were received favorably by both critics and readers, and though Post
later tried writing novels, he found his greatest success in writing
short stories. He wrote another series of short stories centered around
Uncle Abner, a Virginia squire in colonial times whose duty to protect
his mountain community resulted in his turning detective. Originally
published in various magazines, the stories were so successful they
were ultimately published in book form in a collection called "Uncle
Abner: Master of Mysteries" (1918).
Post's knack for detective fiction resulted in a series of short stories featuring at least five other detectives, and although successful, they didn't meet with the success of his Uncle Abner series. Several reviewers compared Post's talents as a short-story writer to that of Edgar Allan Poe,
Post died in Clarksburg, West Virginia, in 1930 from injuries he received when he was thrown from a horse.
Post's knack for detective fiction resulted in a series of short stories featuring at least five other detectives, and although successful, they didn't meet with the success of his Uncle Abner series. Several reviewers compared Post's talents as a short-story writer to that of Edgar Allan Poe,
Post died in Clarksburg, West Virginia, in 1930 from injuries he received when he was thrown from a horse.