Noel B. Gerson

Noel Bertram Gerson was a prolific American author, born in Chicago in 1913, who specialized in historical fiction and non-fiction. His writing career spanned several decades, and he is credited with more than 325 novels. The son of Sam Gerson, a director at Shubert theaters in Chicago, Gerson married Marilyn and had four children, a son and three daughters.

Gerson's academic background began at the prestigious University of Chicago, where he served as the campus correspondent for the Chicago Herald. His journalistic career progressed when he became a reporter at the Chicago Herald and then joined WGN in Chicago as a public writer. Eventually, Gerson rose to become the talent director and main scriptwriter for the paper.

Gerson wrote many biographies and biographical novels about numerous historical figures, including Theodore Roosevelt, John Hancock, Sam Houston, Andrew Johnson, Henry Hudson, Mary Shelley, Captain John Smith, and many others. His works were not limited to historical figures, as he also wrote Western fiction under the house names Donald Clayton Porter and Dana Fuller Ross. Two of his novels, "55 Days at Peking" and "The Naked Maja," were adapted into films.

In addition to his own name, Gerson used nine pseudonyms to write his extensive body of work. These pseudonyms include Anne Marie Burgess, Michael Burgess, Nicholas Gorham, Paul Lewis, Leon Phillips, Donald Clayton Porter, Dana Fuller Ross, Philip Vail, and Carter A. Vaughan. Gerson's prolific writing career and his use of pseudonyms demonstrate his versatility and productivity as an author.