Harold Frederic

Harold Frederic was born in 1856 in Utica, New York. His birth five years before the Civil War began placed him in the position to observe the passing away of the antebellum generation as the twentieth century drew closer, which to Frederic came to symbolize the loss of a national innocence and a traditional set of values and beliefs. He worked as a newspaper reporter until the success of The Damnation of Theron Ware provided him the financial security to quit.