Derrick Dodd

Who is Derrick Dodd?

Frank Harrison Gassaway is a noted American humorist and poet who often wrote under the pseudonym Derrick Dodd. Dodd is perhaps most well known for his travel letters Summer Saunterings published under this pseudonym. Although little is known of his personal life before he became a prominent writer in California, Dodd apparently married a southern belle from Washington D.C. named Elizabeth Paschal and fathered a son, Francis, in 1874 or 1875. In 1880, Dodd left Washington D.C. and moved to Oakland, California where he began writing for major San Francisco papers including the San Francisco Examiner, Chronicle and the Evening Post. By 1892, Dodd had become the business manager for William Randolph Hearst's paper the San Francisco Examiner and a great admirer of the leading newspaper mogul. A volume of his poems entitled Poems was published in 1920 and was dedicated to Hearst.