Harold Frederic

Harold Frederic (August 19, 1856 – October 19, 1898) was an American journalist and novelist. His works include In the Valley (1890), The Damnation of Theron Ware (1896), and The Market Place (1899).

Life and career

Harold Henry Frederick was born in Utica, New York, on August 19, 1856, to Presbyterian parents. He attended the Methodist church, but was generally skeptical towards religion. Frederic developed an early interest in photography and journalism. After his father was killed in a railroad accident when Frederic was 18 months old, the boy was raised primarily by his mother. He finished school at age fifteen, and soon began work as a photographer. For four years he was a photographic touch-up artist in his hometown and in Boston. In 1875, he began work as a proofreader for the newspaper The Utica Herald and then The Utica Daily Observer. Frederic later became a reporter. Frederic married Grace Green Williams in 1877, and they had five children together. By 1882 he was editor of the newspaper The Albany Evening Journal in the New York state capital. As editor of the Journal, Frederic was involved with politics and notably supported the future president Grover Cleveland for Governor of New York over Republican Charles J. Folger in the 1882 New York state election; and although the support cost Frederic his job when the son of a Republican senator bought the paper in 1884, Frederic became an advisor to the Governor and when Cleveland became President of the United States, their friendship opened doors for Frederic as he was establishing himself in England.