John Elliott Curran


John Elliott Curran was an American lawyer and writer. He published a novel, Miss Frances Merley.

Early life and education

Curran, son of John C. and Mary L. Curran, was born in Utica, New York, May 25, 1848. He graduated from Yale College in 1870. After nearly a year of European travel he pursued the study of law, at first in Utica, and then in the Law School of Columbia College, where he was graduated in May 1873.

Career

Curran practiced law for some years in New York City, but finally abandoned it for literary work, which had long interested him. He published one novel, Miss Frances Merley, in 1888, and a number of stories in magazines. He also did some newspaper work in New York, and was secretary of the ''New York Lumber Trade Journal.''

Publications

Miss Frances Merley
  • "Polly Winslow"
  • "Joe Gilfillan"

Personal life

He married Eliza Phillips Mulford, of New York City, who survived him with their three children. Their residence was in Englewood, New Jersey, where he died on May 18, 1890, at the age of 41, of heart-failure, following a week's illness of pneumonia and pleurisy. His son Henry Hastings Curran was Manhattan borough president and a deputy to Mayor Fiorello La Guardia.