John Luther Long was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 lawyer

Lawyer

A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

 and writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

 best known for his short story "Madame Butterfly

Madame Butterfly (short story)

"Madame Butterfly" is a short story by American writer John Luther Long. It is based on the recollections of Long's sister, Jennie Correll, who had been to Japan with her husband—a Methodist missionary...

", which was based on the recollections of his sister, Jennie Correll, who had been to Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 with her husband—a Methodist missionary

Missionary

A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...

.

Born in Hanover, Pennsylvania

Hanover, Pennsylvania

Hanover is a borough in York County, Pennsylvania, southwest of York and north-northwest of Baltimore, Maryland.The town is situated in a productive agricultural region. The population was 15,289 at the 2010 census. The borough is served by a 717 area code and the Zip Codes of 17331-34...

, Long had been admitted to the bar in Philadelphia on October 29, 1881, and become a practicing lawyer. On January 17, 1882, he married Mary Jane Sprenkle. He died at age 66 on October 31, 1927 having spent the last two months of his life at a sanatorium in Clifton Springs, New York

Clifton Springs, New York

Clifton Springs is a village located in Ontario County, New York, United States. The population was 2,223 at the 2000 census. The village takes its name from local mineral springs....

. The obituary in The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

of November 1, 1927 quoted his own interpretation of himself as "a sentimentalist, and a feminist and proud of it".

Sources

• Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin (1993). Biographical Sketch. John Luther Long: An Inventory of His Papers at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center.

External links

• Madame Butterfly, The Century Volume 55 Issue 3 (Jan 1898) pp. 374–393
• Madame Butterfly 1903 Grosset and Dunlap "Japanese Edition" with photogravure
  Photogravure
  Photogravure is an intaglio printmaking or photo-mechanical process whereby a copper plate is coated with a light-sensitive gelatin tissue which had been exposed to a film positive, and then etched, resulting in a high quality intaglio print that can reproduce the detail and continuous tones of a...
  
  illustrations by C. Yarnall Abbott (1870–1938)
• David Belasco's Play Madame Butterfly, A Tragedy of Japan (from "Six Plays" Little, Brown 1928)
• John Luther Long, American Studies at The University of Virginia.