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Title: The Masquerader
Author: Katherine Cecil Thurston
Illustrator: Clarence F. Underwood
Storyline: Political thriller titled John Chilcote, or The Masquerader in the United States. The troubled Chilicote switches identities with a lookalike to escape his problems. All kinds of mishaps ensue as confused wives and girl friends get caught up in political and personal intrigues. (This title was on the New York Times Best Seller list for two years, ranking as the third best-selling book for 1904 and the seventh best-selling in 1905. It was adaped into a broadway play and four different films.)
Copyright: 1904
Publication: 1904
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap, New York
Format: Green cloth-bound hardcover with embossed design
Page Count: 328
Author Biography:
Thurston, Katherine Cecil. Born Katherine Cecil Madden in Cork, Ireland, daughter of the mayor of Cork. Her Father, also a banker, could afford to have her privately educated. After school, Thurston wrote short stories for a number of UK magazines like Pall Mall Magazine, and Harpers. She married writer Ernest Temple Thurston in 1901, but soon divorced because he was uncomfortable that she had a larger income as a popular writer. Her promising career ended abruptly when she was found dead in a hotel after asphyxiating from an apparent epileptic seizure.
Works include: The Masquerader (1904); The Gambler (1905) - which was a bestseller and first book by any author, female or male, as having two top-ten books in a single year; and Max (1910) - which was also a best seller.
