Harold Frederic (August 19, 1856 - October 19, 1898) was an Anglo-American journalist and novelist of the realism school. Frederic was born in Utica, New York, was educated there, and took up journalism. He went to live in England as London correspondent of the New York Times in 1884 and was soon recognized for his ability both as a writer and as a talker. He wrote several early stories, but it was not until he published Illumination (1896), better known by its American title, The Damnation of Theron Ware, followed by Gloria Mundi (1898), that his remarkable gifts as a novelist were fully realized. They are considered classics of realism and rejecting romanticism and idealism.

He had a wife and five children, to whom he added a mistress and three more children. His mistress was a Christian Scientist who tried faith healing when he suffered a stroke in 1898, but it didn't work. She was tried on charges of manslaughter and acquitted.

Reference

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.