Francis Marion Crawford was born on Aug. 2, 1854, in Bagni de Lucca, Tuscany, Italy. He was the son of the American sculptor Thomas Crawford. He was educated by a French governess; then at St. Paul's School, Concord, N.H.; in the quiet country village of Hatfield Regis, under an English tutor; at Trinity College, Cambridge, where they thought him to become a mathematician; at Heidelberg and Karlsruhe, and at the University of Rome, where a special interest in Oriental languages sent him to India with the idea of preparing for a professorship. He spent a short time as a newspaper editor there. Crawford became an extremely popular novelist at the turn of the 20th century, although now he is… now little read; it is somewhat ironic that he may now be best known for a few ghost stories, pieces which Crawford wrote largely to help keep his name before the public and/or to make some quick and easy cash. These tales are a miniscule and fairly unrepresentative part of his total literary output. F. Marion Crawford died at his home near Sorrento, Italy, 9 April, 1909.