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JAMES D. LAW is a native of Lumsden,
Aberdeenshire, Scotland, where he
was born April 6, 1865. He was "raised" in
the care of his uncle, John Law,
and after attending the public schools of Auchindoir parish, served for
four years as a pupil teacher, and then became assistant to the Factor on
the Durris Estates, Deeside, near Aberdeen.
He married,
in 1886, Miss Agnes Duff, of New Noth, Rhynie,
and the young couple came to America and settled in Camden, N. J., where
Mr. Law for some years held a position of trust in an oil-cloth factory.
After experiences in the cigar business, in retail trade, and in newspaper
work, Mr. Law, with his son Duff C. Law, took up motion pictures both as
an art and as an industry. He was the first to put on films, The
Making of a Modern Newspaper, using
the activities of The Philadelphia Record as the object lesson. He
also is the inventor of a ‘‘Universal Clock,’’ that on one dial tells the
time correctly, continuously and synchronously in any part, of the world.
In the moving-pieture field, Mr. Law has been identified only with the
highest type of motion photography, his hobby being the Educational
Theatre.
Mr. Law is an author of
international reputation, having published several volumes that have been
well received by the leading critics. His Dreams o’ Hame and Other
Scottish and American Poems secured a permanent place for him among the
Doric bards, while his Seashore of Bohemia, portraying
Shakespeare’s life in dramatic form, has been highly praised. Among his
other books are Lancaster—Old and New and Here and There in Two
Hemispheres.
Large as his output has been for an occasional, not a
professional writer, he has a still larger collection of original prose
and verse in manuscript form, and from the fugitive specimens of his
writings that appear from time to time; it may safely be said that his
quality improves with his maturing years. Mr. Law is a family man, finding
his keenest pleasure in his home and his library. He has always been
strictly temperate in his habits and does not use tobacco. Two visits paid
to the old country and occasional business trips throughout the United
States have brought him a wide circle of acquaintances and friends. His
extensive library includes many rare volumes, a few hundred of which are
presentation copies from the authors. His autograph collection has the
rather unusual merit of having cost him nothing, the letters being all
addressed to himself on literary or personal topics and include
holographic specimens from the greatest pens of our time on both sides of
the Atlantic. The Law homestead at "Clovernook," Roxboro, on the highest
ground in Philadelphia City, is a veritable treasure-house of literary
lore.
Mrs. Law is a lady of fine education
and kindly disposition added to a good supply of the peculiar gifts that
go with her family name. The five surviving children are Duff Christie,
Estella Maria, America P., Russell Gordon, and Evelyn Agnes—all excellent
specimens of Scots born in America. |
