McMasters, William H
Entry updated 4 December 2023. Tagged: Author.
(1874-1968) US journalist, playwright and author whose Revolt: An American Novel (1919) he claimed, with some justification, to have had a central role in 1920 in the exposure of Charles Ponzi (1882-1949), who gave his name to the pyramid scheme where new deposits are used to pay off old investors until the structure implodes. Revolt: An American Novel (1919) is a Near Future tale set in 1940, when two American political parties are vying over the shape of Utopia to come; Blind: The Story of the World Tragedy, by David Glenn MacKenzie, as Seen Through the Eyes of William H McMasters (1934) is a Disaster tale, in which a Comet causes sudden widespread blindness.
McMasters ran unsuccessfully for various Massachusetts offices, including the governorship in 1936. He should not be confused with William Henry McMaster (1877-1968), governor of Kansas 1921-1925. [JC]
William Henry McMasters
born Franklin, Massachusetts: 9 June 1874
died Cambridge, Massachusetts: 28 February 1968
works
- Revolt: An American Novel (Boston, Massachusetts: David D Nickerson and Co, 1919) [illus/Haydon Jones: hb/]
- Blind: The Story of the World Tragedy, by David Glenn MacKenzie, as Seen Through the Eyes of William H McMasters (Boston, Massachusetts: The Stratford Company, 1934) [hb/]
links
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