Born: September 8, 1877, Columbia, Pennsylvania
Died: April 25, 1959, Roanoke, Virginia
The writer of numerous works of fiction and Hollywood film productions, Reginald Wright Kaufman was born to Andrew John Kaufman (a prominent Columbia attorney and president of the Central National Bank) and Anne Fausset Bruner.
Reginald embraced socialism and secular humanism about the time he entered Harvard. Although raised Episcopalian, he intellectually explored Mormonism, yet later actually joined the Russian Orthodox church, where he took the name ‘Basil.’ Some references suggest this was more a maneuver than an act of faith.
Reginald Wright Kaufman was a nephew (through marriage) of Samuel Wright, Esq. Samuel and his wife Ellen (Anne’s sister) lived in Anne’s household on South Second Street in Columbia and continued living there, after Anne’s passing until they died.
Upon graduating from Harvard in 1900, Reginald moved to Philadelphia with his first wife, Ellen, and one child. In 1911, in his introduction to The Girl That Goes Wrong, Reginald refers to having lived in a great many places both in the US and Europe. He and his wife barely supported themselves by writing sporadically for periodicals and newspapers.
Around 1910, Reginald and his new wife, Ruth, lived with Anne, Samuel, and Ellen at the same South Second Street house in Columbia (house next to the old Columbia Hospital).
Always willing to move where the work was, Reginald held the post of Editor of the Bangor Maine Daily News. And, only recently, it was discovered that he was an accredited correspondent with the United States Navy and a member of La Société Académique d’Histoire.
Reginald Wright Kaufman went on to write numerous books, some of which were made into movie screenplays. And, although difficult to pin down, it’s said that some of his books, although fiction, refer to locations in and around Columbia.
View his Hollywood movie credits on the Internet Movie Database.
View a select list of his books on Amazon.
Reginald Wright Kauffman is buried in Columbia’s Mount Bethel Cemetery, along with his wife, Ruth Wright Kauffman.