The Trial in Tom Belcher's Store

Samuel Arthur Derieux (1881–1922) was an American writer, known especially for short stories, set in the South, about dogs, hunting, or both.  He was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1881. His undergraduate education was in the South, at Wofford College from 1897 to '99, and at Richmond College (now the University of Richmond), where he received his B.A. in 1904. He spent two years of graduate work at Johns Hopkins, and received his M.A. at University of Chicago in 1910.

He worked as an assistant professor of English at Richmond (1910-'11), Missouri State Normal School ('11-'13), and Wake Forest ('15-'17).

Derieux had already published a few stories, and in 1917 he joined the editorial staff in the New York offices of The American Magazine, where he then published one in each of the next two years, and two to six a year thereafter. He was among the winners of an O. Henry memorial award in the awards' first year, and was the first author to accumulate three of the awards ('19, '21, and—posthumously -- '22). He died in Manhattan of appendicitis at the age of 41 on February 25, 1922.

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