Richard Atwater author page

Biography

Richard Tupper Atwater (December 29, 1892 – August 21, 1948) was a Chicago writer and University of Chicago classics professor. He is best known for co-authoring the book Mr. Popper’s Penguins with his wife Florence. He wrote for the Chicago Evening Post, the Chicago Daily News, the Chicago Tribune, and the Herald-Examiner, as well as the literary and arts magazine The Chicagoan. He was also a Classical Greek instructor at the University of Chicago.

Atwater translated Procopius’ Secret History, a 6th century story about Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora, into English. Pascal Covici published it in a limited edition of 760 copies in 1927, and University of Michigan Press reprinted it in 1961.