5/11/1875 A radical arrives: Leroy Scott

May 11, 1875.  Leroy Scott was born on this date in Indiana.  He was a newspaper reporter, an activist and a social worker.  He makes it onto this page because of his fourth novel, Counsel For The Defense (1912).  Not only was it a crime novel, but it was decades ahead of its time.  The protagonist was a female attorney.  One reviewer notes that she "secures the release of two innocent prisoners, overthrows a political ring, exposes a water-works conspiracy, elects a mayor and marries him."  Wow. 

You can read the book here for free.

Source: James Alvin Huston.  A Hoosier Sampler: An Anthology of Indiana Writers.