The Puppet Crown

Something there is of the same power of revealing the loneliness the heartache and the unsatisfied longings of royalty that throbs in Daudet's "Kings in Exile." The whole plot turns on the misery of a King who has sold his birthright for a crown that is only a symbol of his own impotency. He is a puppet in the hands of a confederation of great powers who permit him to rule because he is an idealist and a dreamer, and, they know, will finally allow the kingdom to fall into their hands as a protectorate.

Harold MacGrath (1871-1932) was an American author and screenwriter born in Syracuse, New York. He is best-known for his adventure, mystery, and spy stories, especially The Puppet Crown (1901). Starting as a journalist, he also contributed several of his short stories and novels to various magazines. After his first novel, Arms and the Woman (1899), he published The Puppet Crown, The Million Dollar Mystery (1915), and The Blue Rajah Murder (1930). He died at the age of 61.