Joseph Seamon Cotter Jr. (September 2, 1895 – February 3, 1919) was an American playwright, writer, and poet from Louisville, Kentucky most remembered for his posthumously published one-act play On The Fields of France in addition to numerous volumes of poetry.

[1] Cotter was born and lived the formative years of his life in Louisville, Kentucky, where he attended Central High School until his graduation in 1911.

[2] Cotter subsequently attended Fisk University in Nashville, TN, before contracting tuberculosis, a disease that claimed the life of his sister, Florence Olivia, in 1914.

[3] After falling ill, Cotter returned to Louisville and began work as a journalist for the Leader.

"[3] His father was instrumental in promoting his son's work after his death in 1919 from tuberculosis.