McCutcheon (1866-1928) was an American popular novelist and playwright whose best known works include the series of novels set in Graustark, a fictional Eastern European country, and the novel Brewster's Millions which has been adapted into a play and several films. He was born in Tippecanoe County, Indiana and his father, despite his own lack of formal education, stressed the value of literature and encouraged his sons to write. He studied at Purdue University and during his college years was editor of the Lafayette Daily Courier and wrote a serial story about Wabash River life. First published in 1901, this is the first of the Graustark novels which are similar to Anthony Hope's The Prisoner of Zenda (1894). It was these two authors' novels that gave their name to a fictional genre called either Ruritanian romance based on The Prisoner of Zenda, or Graustarkian romance from McCutcheon's novels, which typically featured titled characters in small, fictional Eastern of Central European countries caught up in tales of intrigue and romance. Despite his Graustark novels being popular bestsellers which brought him widespread fame, McCutcheon hated the characterisation of being a romantic and preferred to be identified with his playwriting.