Thomas B. Costain

Costain, Thomas Bertram

Thomas Bertram Costain, editor, novelist (b at Brantford, Ont 8 May 1885; d at New York, NY 8 Oct 1965). Costain worked as an editor and reporter with several newspapers and magazines and was editor of Maclean's from 1914 until 1920, when he emigrated to the US to be associate editor of Saturday Evening Post. From 1934 to 1936 he was a story editor at Twentieth-Century Fox, returning to publishing as advisory editor at Doubleday in 1939. His writing career began in 1942 with publication of For My Great Folly, a best-seller. His fast-paced historical fiction was extremely popular and sold in the millions. The Black Rose (1945) sold more than 2 million copies. His novels with Canadian settings are High Towers (1949), dealing with the LE MOYNE family of New France; and Son of a Hundred Kings (1950). He also wrote a history of New France, The White and the Gold (1954).