Educated at the University of West Virginia, Post received a law degree in 1891. He began practicing law in Wheeling and became secretary of the Electoral College of West Virginia. With a lawyer's perspective on crime, he began to write, publishing The Strange Schemes of Randolph Mason in 1896 and followed with The Man of Last Resort in 1897. His most successful novel, Dwellers in the Hills, appeared in 1901. He married Ann Schoolfield of Virginia in 1901. When his young son died in 1906, Post gave up his practice and travelled to Europe. On his return to America, he began to write full-time and contributed numerous articles to various periodicals and by 1911 became the highest paid magazine writer in America. His "Uncle Abner" stories were serialized by the Saturday Evening Post and are probably the stories for which he is best remembered today. Post died as a result of a riding accident. His other works include Gilded Chair (1910), Nameless Thing (1912), Uncle Abner: Master of Mysteries (1918), Mystery at the Blue Villa (1919), The Sleuth of St. James's Square (1920), Bradmoor Murder (1929) and Silent Witness (1930). |
