American author, playwright and screen writer Frederic Arnold Kummer was born on 5 August, 1873 at Cantonsville, Maryland, to Arnold and Mary Morris Kummer. His father, who had emigrated from Germany in 1859 and had fought in the American Civil War, was part owner of Kummer & Becker, a banking and brokerage house in Baltimore that also acted as agents for the North German Lloyd Steamship Line.

Before Kummer turned to writing full time in 1907, he had been the chief engineer for the American Wood Preserving Company and later general manager of the Eastern Paving Block Company. Kummer was an 1894 graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he had earned a degree in civil engineering. In 1901 he was awarded the Collingwood prize by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) for a paper he wrote on wood block paving techniques.

Not long after embarking on his writing career Kummer found success with stories like: "Mr. Buttles" (1908), "The Choice" (1909), "Are You a Suffragette?" (1911), "The Other Woman" (1911), "A Song of Sixpence" (1913), "The Painted Woman" (1913), "One Million Dollars" (1913) and "The Brute" (1914). His most popular book was probably "Ladies in Hades" (1928).

Kummer had also found some success as a painter before turning to writing. Two of his marinescapes were displayed at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts.

Frederic Arnold Kummer married Clare Rodman Beecher (Clare Kummer) on 16 October, 1895 at Nutley, New Jersey. Before divorcing in 1903, the couple had two daughters, Marjorie and Frederica. Marjorie would later become the wife of actor Roland Young. On 14 June, 1907, he married Marion J. McLean of Norfolk, Virginia. Their union would produce a daughter and two sons, Marion, Frederick Jr. (or Frederic Jr.) and Joseph Talbot Tennant Kummer.

After a battling a two year illness, Frederic Arnold Kummer passed away on 22 November, 1943, at Baltimore, Maryland. He was survived by his second wife and all five offspring.

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Frederic Arnold Kummer

Writer