Octavus Roy Cohen

Octavus Roy Cohen (1891-1959) was an American author, born in South Carolina where he received his secondary and college education. At first an engineer, he soon drifted into journalism, which he relinquished for authorship in 1915. He immediately became popular as a result of his stories printed in the Saturday Evening Post which concerned themselves with the adventures of the Southern Negro. If his people seemed to possess the usual mythical Negro qualities of drollery and miscomprehensions, his tales at any rate were spirited. He published many works over several decades, including some plays, farces, and mystery romances. He wrote:

• Polished Ebony (1919)
• Gray Dusk (1920)
• Come Seven (1920)
• Highly Colored (1921)
• Midnight (1922)

He pronounced his first name oc-tav'us, a as in have. (Charles Earle Funk, What's the Name, Please?, Funk & Wagnalls, 1936.)