Frank Nash Westcott was an American Episcopal minister and author active during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Born in Syracuse, New York, he was raised in a prominent local family; his father, Amos Westcott, was an influential dentist, dental college founder, and former mayor of Syracuse. Westcott eventually pursued a religious calling, becoming an ordained minister and serving the congregation at the St. James Protestant Episcopal Church in Skaneateles, New York.\n\nAlongside his pastoral duties, Westcott developed a writing career that spanned both religious scholarship and fiction. He published several theological books concerning Catholicism, alongside two regional novels, Hepsey Burke and Dabney Todd. His literary endeavors ran parallel to those of his brother, Edward Noyes Westcott, who authored the highly popular posthumous novel David Harum.\n\nWestcott's final years were overshadowed by declining health. Struggling with severe sleeplessness, nervous complications, and the physical strain of a broken arm, he was admitted to a hospital, where he committed suicide in 1915. Though his literary output was modest, his work remains a reflection of the cultural and spiritual life of upstate New York during his era.
