Frederic Prokosch

Frederic Prokosch is remembered today primarily as the author of a number of well-received novels and as a minor poet of some note. What is less well known is that he was also an accomplished forger. Frederic Prokosch was born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1908. His father, an Austrian émigré, was a linguist who had a distinguished academic career in the United States. Frederic Prokosch seemed destined for a scholarly career himself. After graduating from Haverford College, he entered Yale and received his doctorate in literature in 1932. While at Haverford, Prokosch began writing poetry and saw his poems published in some of the best-known literary magazines of the time. By the mid-1930s, Prokosch was also experimenting with fiction. His novel The Asiatics was published to critical acclaim in 1935, as was The Seven Who Fled which appeared in 1937. Prokosch went on to produce sixteen novels, several collections of poetry and translations, and an autobiography during his lengthy career.