Background
Arthur Train was born on September 6, 1875, in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. His father was lawyer Charles Russell Train, who served for many years as attorney general of Massachusetts, and his mother was Sara Maria Cheney.
Arthur Train was born on September 6, 1875, in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. His father was lawyer Charles Russell Train, who served for many years as attorney general of Massachusetts, and his mother was Sara Maria Cheney.
Train graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University in 1896 and Bachelor of Laws from Harvard Law School in 1899.
In January 1901, Train became assistant in the office of the New York County District Attorney. In 1904 he started his literary career with the publication of the short story "The Maximilian Diamond" in Leslie's Monthly. He ran the two careers in parallel until 1908 when he left the District Attorney's office to open a general law practice in the Mutual Life Building in New York City. His 1907 novel, "Mortmain", was one of the earliest works in the alien hand syndrome genre and was adapted into a 1915 film of the same name that is now lost.
From 1915 to 1922, Train was in private practice as a lawyer with Charles Albert Perkins while continuing to write, not just novels but short stories, plays, and journalism. In 1919, he created the popular character of Mr. Ephraim Tutt, a wily old lawyer who supported the common man and always had a trick up his sleeve to right the law's injustices. Train wrote dozens of stories about Tutt in the Saturday Evening Post. Train also coauthored two science fiction novels with eminent physicist Robert W. Wood. After 1922, he devoted himself to writing.
In 1897, Train married Ethel Kissam. They had four children, including Mrs. Boris Samsonoff, Mrs. Lucy Worcester, and Arthur Kissam Train. Ethel died in 1923 and Train married Helen Coster Gerard, with whom he had a son, John Train.