Wilson, Harry Leon

(1867-1939)

   Born in Oregon, Illinois, Harry Leon Wilson edited the magazine Puck from 1892 to 1902 and wrote numerous novels and short stories. His theatre work was almost exclusively as a collaborator with Booth Tarkington, beginning with their greatest success, The Man from Home (1908), a comedy that ran for nearly 500 performances. Other Wilson-Tarkington collaborations include Foreign Exchange (1909), Cameo Kirby (1909), Your Humble Servant (1910), Tweedles (1923), and How's Your Health (1929), most of which were short-lived. Several of Wilson's nondra-matic writings were adapted to the stage by others, including Ruggles of Red Gap (1915), His Majesty Bunker Bean (1916), and Merton of the Movies (1922), which was crafted into a hit comedy by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly.