One of the long-distance records for magazine publication of a series
of stories is held by Octavus Roy Cohen, who was born in Charleston,
S.C., on June 26, 1891, and who was a civil engineer, a newspaper
man, and a lawyer before, in 1915, he gave his time exclusively to
writing. The series of humorous negro stories centered about Florian
Slappey which have appeared for years in the _Saturday Evening Post_
has provided a succession of diverting books with no less diverting
titles--_Polished Ebony_, _Highly Colored_, _Assorted Chocolates_,
_Black and Blue,_ etc.
"Arabian Knights," which is of this lineage, was first published in
_Photoplay_.
In justice to Mr. Cohen the reader may be reminded that he is not a
writer in a single vein. _The Crimson Alibi_--afterward made into a
highly successful play--was his novel, and his negro stories have
been interspersed with detective and mystery tales. In general his
other fiction is of the type rather loosely called "dramatic"; and
Cohen is famed among editors for his extraordinary gifts as a
contriver of plots. Lately this gift for situation and the "O. Henry
twist" has gained him a fresh reputation as the author of dramatic,
highly compressed stories told in not more than a thousand words.