Henry Payson Dowst

Henry Payson Dowst (1876-1921) was an American novelist and short-story writer active in the early twentieth century. Born in Bangor, Maine and educated at Bangor High School, Dowst was a graduate of the Harvard class of 1899, and lived briefly in Calais, Maine before becoming General Manager of the Boston publishing house Maynard & Co. In 1916 he want to work for a New York advertising agency, Frank Seaman, Inc., where he remained until his death at age 45. [Obituary, "New York Times", Mar. 14, 1921, p. 10]

Despite his day-jobs, Dowst was a prolific contributor of short stories and novelettes to magazines like "The Saturday Evening Post", "People's Favorite Magazine", and "Argosy All-Story Weekly". One bibliography has identified 35 Dowst stories and published between 1913 and 1923, though the list is not exhaustive. [The Fiction Mags Index http://www.philsp.com/homeville/fmi/s623.htm. Accessed June 5, 2008] He also wrote at least two novels in the same period, "Bostwick's Budget" (Brooklyn, ca. 1920) and "The Man from Ashaluna" (Boston: Small, Maynard & Co., ca. 1920), the second of which was produced as a film in 1924 (entitled "On the Stroke of Three") staring Kenneth Harlan. Four Dowst short stories were also filmed in his lifetime: "An Honest Man" (1918), "The Redhead" (1920, starring Alice Brady), "The Dancin' Fool" (1920, starring Wallace Reid), and "Smiling All the Way" (1920, from the story "Alice in Underland"). [imdb name|0236240|Henry Payson Dowst] Dowst died at the very height of his writing career, his last novelette, "The Hands of Man", being published posthumously in "Munsey's Magazine" in 1923.

At least one of Dowst's stories was co-authored with his wife Margaret Starr Dowst, a graduate of Wellesley College, whom he married in 1900. ["Wellesley College Record" (1900), p. 288]

Dowst died in New York but was buried in Bangor.

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