The Hand of the Mighty, and Other Stories

Vaughan Kester, also written as Vaughan, was an American author and reporter who lived from September 12, 1869, to July 4, 1911. He had a brother named Paul Kester, who wrote plays and books and lived from 1870 to 1933. His style and subjects were shaped by the places he visited in the western and southern U.S. and by William Dean Howells, who was a cousin of his mother. In 1916, J.P. McGowan directed a movie based on his book The Manager of the B&A, which starred Leo Maloney and Helen Holmes. The movie was re-released in 1921 under the title The Man from Medicine Hat. In Ohio, on August 31, 1898, he married Jessie B. Jennings. They didn't have any kids. In 1902, he bought Woodlawn Plantation with his brother and fixed it up. He lived at Gunston Hall from 1907 until he died there. It was there that he wrote The Prodigal Judge. His mother put a memorial in Pohick Church, which used to be Gunston Hall's parish church, to remember him.