Vaughan Kester

The Prodigal Judge Vaughan Kester

Vaughan or Vaughn Kester (1869 -1911) was an American novelist and journalist. He was the elder brother of dramatist and author Paul Kester (1870-1933). His style and topics were influenced by his travels through western and southern U. S., and by his mother's cousin William Dean Howells. His novel The Manager of the B & A was made into a film in 1916 directed by J. P. McGowan, with Leo Maloney and Helen Holmes, reissued in 1921 as The Man from Medicine Hat. The Prodigal Judge is a novel published in 1911. Kester wrote the novel while living at Gunston Hall in Virginia. It was the second-best selling fiction book in the United States in 1911.