Plattsburgh Republican, September 10, 1904
Harold Westcott, only son of the late E. N. Westcott, author of 1898 bestselling novelDavid Harum, died at Saranac Lake, Aug. 30, of consumption. He and his sister Violet received about $150,00 in royalties from David Harum.
Richard G. Case, "The Westcotts and David Harum." The Courier 10.2 (1973): 3-14.
“…Forced to give up working for a living because of the worsening of his "lung trouble," he retired from his city job in June 1895. That summer he took his ideas and a stack of copy paper with him when he visited the Adirondacks at Lake Meacham, near Saranac. Westcott apparently had been thinking about a character like David Harum for some time and believed that one incident he was tinkering with (later Chapters XIX-XXIV) would make a magazine story. He did not tell anyone until later, but at Meacham he did the first work on what was to become his only full-length book..."