Francis Marion Crawford (1854-1909)

He was born at Bagni di Lucca, Italy. He was the son of the famous American sculptor Thomas Crawford; half-brother of the author Margaret Terry Chanler, wife of Winthrop Astor Chanler; full brother of the authors Mary Crawford Fraser and Baroness von Rabe; grandson of the New York banker Samuel Ward; and, nephew of "King of the Lobby" Sam Ward who was a first cousin of the self-styled arbiter of New York society, Ward McAllister. He was educated at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, and the Universities of Cambridge, Heidelberg, and Rome. In 1879, he went to India where he studied Sanskrit and edited the Indian Herald at Allahabad.

Returning to America in 1881, he spent a further year studying Sanskrit at Harvard. From 1882, he lived in Boston with his well-known aunt, Julia Ward Howe, during which time he was often in the company of his gregarious uncle Sam Ward and formed a close lifelong friendship with Isabella Gardner Stewart. In the same year, he produced his first novel, Mr. Isaacs: A Tale of Modern India (1882), a brilliant sketch of Anglo-Indian life intermingled with Oriental mystery which made it an immediate success. His second book, Dr. Claudius (1883), confirmed his reputation as a talented novelist and in the same year he returned to Italy where he lived for the rest of his life. In 1885, he lived at the historic Hotel Cocumella in Sorrento before settling permanently at nearby Sant'Agnello, where in the fall of 1885 he bought the Villa Renzi that became "Villa Crawford". In the same year (1886) as his first child was born he adopted the surname Marion-Crawford.

Year by year, he published further successful novels as well as historical works that showed his intimate knowledge of Italy. He is remembered as an excellent storyteller noted for his supernatural and fantastical tales that more often than not were picturesquely set in Italy and were highly praised by the likes of M.R. James among others. Some of his books were made into films and in 1902 his friend Sarah Bernhardt produced his play Francesca da Rimini in Paris. In 1884, he married Elizabeth, daughter of Union General Hiram Berdan, "Sharpshooter" and inventor of the Berdan Rifle. They had four children.