Henry Payson Dowst (1876–1921) was an American novelist and short-story writer active in the early twentieth century.
Born on December 15, 1876,[1] in Bangor, Maine and educated at Bangor High School, Dowst was a graduate of the Harvard class of 1899, and lived briefly in Calais, Maine, before becoming General Manager of the Boston publishing house Maynard & Co.
In 1916 he went to work for a New York advertising agency, Frank Seaman, Inc., where he remained until his death at age 45.
Four Dowst short stories were also filmed in his lifetime: An Honest Man (1918), The Redhead (1920, starring Alice Brady), The Dancin' Fool (1920, starring Wallace Reid), and Smiling All the Way (1920, from the story Alice in Underland).
[3] Dowst died at the very height of his writing career, his last novelette, The Hands of Man, being published posthumously in Munsey's Magazine in 1923.