Leander Pease Richardson (February 28, 1856 – February 2, 1918) was an American journalist, playwright, theatrical writer and author.''Leander Richardson Dead. Dramatist and Theatrical Writer a Victim of Pneumonia''
article;

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

; accessed .

Early life

Richardson was born in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

in 1856. He was the son of

Albert D. Richardson Albert Deane Richardson (October 6, 1833 – December 2, 1869) was a well-known American journalist, Union spy, and author. Among his works is his noted biography of Ulysses S. Grant. Richardson was shot on two occasions, the second time fatally, ...

(a journalist and

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

spy during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

), and Mary Louise Pease. The young Richardson was known to be of a "temperamental" disposition from an early age.''Obituary Notes''
February 9, 1918 article; The Fourth Estate; accessed .

Journalism career

When 16, Richardson began working for the '' Chicago Inter Ocean Newspaper''; and later became a European correspondent for the '' Boston Herald''. In addition to other newspaper and magazine posts, he served as managing editor of ''

The Morning Telegraph ''The Morning Telegraph'' (1839 – April 10, 1972) (sometimes referred to as the ''New York Morning Telegraph'') was a New York City broadsheet newspaper owned by Moe Annenberg's Cecelia Corporation. It was first published as the '' Sunday ...

'' when that newspaper was first founded.''American Vaudeville, Its Life and Times''
1940 article by Gilbert, Douglas; p.154; accessed .''Fifty Years in Theatrical Management''
1912 article by Leavitt, Michael Bennett; pp. 612–13; accessed . He was known for changing jobs often. He was one of the founding board members and Assistant Secretary of the Actors' Order of Friendship, a benevolent society founded in Philadelphia in 1849. In 1884 he founded '' The Journalist'' trade magazine with

Charles Alfred Byrne Charles Alfred Byrne (1848 – 1909) was an American journalist and playwright. Byrne was involved in a number of publications including ''Truth'' and '' The Journalist''. He translated the libretto of Debussy's opera Pelléas et Mélisande ...

.Lee, Alfred McClung
The Daily Newspaper in America, Vol. 1
p. 228 (1937) Later in life, he joined the staff of

Notable interview

In 1876 while in Deadwood (in the

Dakota Territory The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of N ...

), he happened to interview

Wild Bill Hickok James Butler Hickok (May 27, 1837August 2, 1876), better known as "Wild Bill" Hickok, was a folk hero of the American Old West known for his life on the frontier as a soldier, scout, lawman, gambler, showman, and actor, and for his involvement ...

the day before his death, and wrote about the event a number of times.''"I Know .. because I Was There": Leander P. Richardson Reports the Black Hills Gold Rush''; PDF download; 2001; McLaird, James. D.; "South Dakota History", Vol. 31.

Theatrical writer

Richardson was best known as a writer on theatrical topics, which he focused on for thirty years. He also became a playwright, writing seven plays and three books. An early example of this work was the play, ''Anselma'', which opened at New York's

Madison Square Theatre ''The Madison Square Theatre'' was a Broadway theatre in Manhattan, on the south side of 24th Street between Sixth Avenue and Broadway (which intersects Fifth Avenue near that point.) It was built in 1863, operated as a theater from 1865 to 1908, ...

in September 1885, for which he was the bookwriter.

Author

Richardson authored several books and short stories''Leander Richardson''

Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential econo ...

; accessed November 2013. based on his travels.

Death

Richardson died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

in February 1918. His obituary in ''The Fourth Estate'', a journal on the newspaper industry, called Richardson "one of the most widely known dramatic editors in this country."