Leroy Scott

Who was Leroy Scott?

Leroy Scott was an American writer of novels and screenplays. He was born in Fairmount, Indiana 11 May 1875. His father was a minister with the Religious Society of Friends. He graduated from Indiana University in 1897. His writing career began with three years experience as a reporter; he worked at a Louisiana newspaper owned by his brother. Later he became assistant editor of the Woman’s Home Companion.

Scott was a social activist. In 1902–3 he was assistant headworker at the University Settlement House. It is there that he met and later married on 27 Jun 1904 Miriam Finn, a Russian Jewish writer, with whom he had a daughter. Around this time Scott was an officer of the Intercollegiate Socialist Society, of which he was a founder. Scott had come to University Settlement after Hull House experience. After his settlement experience, Scott and his wife came to live at the "A-Club", a cooperative, and a "radical center."

In 1906, Scott helped arrange accommodations for Maxim Gorky during his visit to the United States. In 1907 Scott and his wife visited Russia.

To research his book about labor relations, The Walking Delegate, Scott Joined the Structural Iron Workers Union.