Arthur Train
Arthur Cheney Train was a dual-career individual known for his work as both a lawyer and a writer. Born on September 6, 1875, in Boston, Massachusetts, he pursued law under the influence of his father, who served as the attorney general of Massachusetts. After obtaining his law degree from Harvard in 1899, Train worked briefly in Boston before moving to New York, where he became an assistant district attorney. His experiences in the legal field, particularly his interest in the human aspects of criminal cases, inspired him to write, leading to a successful career in fiction and true crime writing.
Train gained prominence for his true crime works, including "The Prisoner at the Bar" and "True Stories of Crime from the District Attorney's Office." He is perhaps best known for creating the character Ephraim Tutt, a fictional lawyer whose engaging stories captivated readers and were published in numerous magazines. In addition to his successful publications, Train was a notable figure in the literary community, founding the Authors' League of America and serving as president of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. Though his work may not be widely recognized today, Train's writing is marked by thorough research and vivid depictions of New York City, contributing to a rich narrative style that continues to intrigue modern readers.
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Arthur Train
Lawyer
- Born: September 6, 1875
- Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts
- Died: December 22, 1945
- Place of death: New York, New York
Biography
Arthur Cheney Train had two successful careers. By training, he was a lawyer who served as an assistant district attorney in New York. He was also a successful writer who penned numerous short stories and novels. Train was born on September 6, 1875, in Boston, Massachusetts. His father, Charles Russell Train, was the attorney general of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, so it was natural for the younger Train to follow his father into the legal profession. Although he expressed an interest in writing at an early age, a literary career was frowned on in the upper-class circles to which the Train family belonged.
In 1897, he married Ethel Kissam, with whom he had four children. Train received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard in 1896, and then attended the university’s law school. He graduated from law school in 1899, and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar that same year. He briefly practiced law in Boston, and later moved to New York, where he became an assistant district attorney.
Around the same time, Train became fascinated with the human side of criminal cases, and the infamous New York City jail known as The Tombs. This fascination lead Train to begin writing fictionalized crime cases, and by 1905 he was regularly contributing stories to Scribner’s and The Saturday Evening Post. Train starting writing nonfiction accounts of criminal cases, and established a reputation as a true-crime writer. Some of his better-known true crime works include The Prisoner at the Bar, True Stories of Crime from the District Attorney’s Office, and Courts, Criminals, and the Camorra.
In 1919, Train created the character Ephraim Tutt, an older, cigar-smoking Yankee lawyer who dressed in a frock coat and stovepipe hat. The character was a success, and the stories featuring Tutt brought Train his greatest popularity. More than one hundred Tutt stories appeared in various magazines. These were collected into fourteen books. Perhaps the most memorable and unusual of these stories was the autobiography of the fictional character, Yankee Lawyer. Train constructed an entire life history for Tutt, including photographs and fictional friendships with real celebrities such as Calvin Coolidge and Edith Wharton. Train published his autobiography, My Day in Court, in 1939.
In addition to his crime writing, Train also wrote two science-fiction novels, contemporary fiction, and a nonfiction history of the Train family. In 1912, Train founded the Authors’ League of America to help authors with contractual and legal problems after discovering an inequity in the payments that publishers made to writers for the serial rights to short stories. He was twice elected president of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. Train was an avid researcher and his novels are filled with vivid details of New York City, in addition to his credible descriptions of legal procedure. Although his work has been largely forgotten, modern readers would no doubt find Train’s writing, especially his characterization of Ephraim Tutt, fascinating reading.