Harris Merton Lyon (1882–1916) was an American short story writer. Biography Harris Merton Lyon was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1882. He attended the University of Missouri while working at a restaurant and laundrette. By the early 1900s, he moved to New York City to work as a journalist and as a short story writer. His stories were published in Broadway Magazine, edited by Theodore Dreiser, and later in McClure's, Collier's, The Smart Set, and The Illustrated Sunday Magazine. In 1908, he published his first collection of short stories, Sardonics, followed by Graphics in 1913. 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." In 1913, he moved to a farm in Colebrook, Connecticut and started writing a series of anonymous letters for Reedy's Mirror. He died of Bright's disease three years later. Theodore Dreiser wrote a portrait based on Lyon in Twelve Men. Dreiser nicknamed him 'Maupassant, Jr'. Bibliography Sardonics (1908) Graphics (1913) References 1882 births 1916 deaths 20th-century American short story writers People from Colebrook, Connecticut University of Missouri alumni Writers from New York City Writers from Santa Fe, New Mexico Deaths from nephritis American male short story writers Writers from Connecticut 20th-century American male writers