 | ||
Died 22 December 1911, Indian Village, Chicago, Illinois, United States Books Istar of Babylon, The House of de Mailly: A, The Fire of spring, UNCANONIZED A ROMANC, ISTAR OF BABYLON A PHANT | ||
Margaret Horton Potter (May 20, 1881 – December 22, 1911) was an American novelist, specializing in historical fiction.
Contents
Early life
Margaret Horton Potter was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Orrin Woodard Potter (1836-1907), a wealthy steel manufacturer, and Ellen Owen Potter, who was active in women's clubs in Chicago.
Career
Margaret Horton Potter was still a teenager when she published her first novel, which was considered such a scandalous tale, modeled on actual people and events in Chicago society, that her family tried (unsuccessfully) to prevent its publication.
Novels by Margaret Horton Potter include Uncanonized: A Romance of English Monachism (1900); The House of de Mailly: A Romance (1901); Istar of Babylon: A Phantasy (1902); A Social Lion (1903, under pseudonym Robert Dolly Williams); The Castle of Twilight (1903); The Flame-Gatherers (1904); The Fire of Spring (1905); The Genius (1906); The Princess (1907); and The Golden Ladder (1908). Her works were generally historical fiction, with romance plots and exotic settings for American readers, though A Social Lion and The Golden Ladder are set in Chicago. There were also fantasy elements in some of Potter's novels, such as supernatural characters (the title character in Istar of Babylon is the goddess Ishtar) and the transmigrated souls in The Flame-Gatherers.
In addition to novels, Potter wrote short stories and poems that appeared in Harper's Magazine. and co-wrote a play, The Devil's Choice (1909), with Wallace Rice.
Personal life
Margaret Horton Potter married lawyer John Donald Black (son of John C. Black) in 1902. In about 1905, she became addicted to morphine. In May 1910, she was declared mentally incompetent due to chronic alcoholism and morphine addiction, and institutionalized. After her release, her husband divorced her for "habitual drunkenness." She died from a morphine overdose, ruled accidental, in 1911, aged 30 years.