Harris Merton Lyon (1882–1916) was an American short story writer.
Harris Merton Lyon was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1882.[1] He attended the University of Missouri while working at a restaurant and laundrette.[1] By the early 1900s, he moved to New York City to work as a journalist and as a short story writer.[1] His stories were published in Broadway Magazine, edited by Theodore Dreiser, and later in McClure's, Collier's, The Smart Set,[1] and The Illustrated Sunday Magazine.[2][3] In 1908, he published his first collection of short stories, Sardonics, followed by Graphics in 1913.[1]
A newspaper from February 1908 reproduced a photo of a 17-year-old Japanese woman named Hyacinth Tawana, who the caption said was coming to America to marry Lyon. The caption stated Lyon "had rescued his bride-to-be from a very perilous situation in Japan, and the romance followed."[4]
In 1913, he moved to a farm in Colebrook, Connecticut and started writing a series of anonymous letters for Reedy's Mirror.[5] He died of Bright's disease three years later.[1]
Theodore Dreiser wrote a portrait based on Lyon in Twelve Men.[1] Dreiser nicknamed him 'Maupassant, Jr'.[6][7]
