Thomas Cooper De Leon (May 21, 1839 – March 19, 1914) was an American journalist, author, and playwright.

Born inColumbia, South Carolina, his parents were Mordecai Hendricks de Leon and Rebecca Lopez. His older brothers were the Confederate Surgeon-GeneralDavid Camden de Leon and the writer andConfederate diplomat and propagandistEdwin de Leon. Thomas Cooper de Leon served in the Confederate army from 1861 to 1865, and after theCivil War he editedThe Mobile Register,The Gossip, and theGulf Citizen (both Mobile papers; 1873–96). For many years, he managed the MobileMardi Gras Carnival.

He was the author of a number of works, among themCreole and Puritan (1889),The Puritan's Daughter, andFour Years in Rebel Capitals (1893). He also wrote several plays, including the comedy-dramaPluck which was produced byLawrence Barrett in 1873. He wastotally blind from 1903 and henceforward known as "The Blind Laureate of the Lost Cause".

Thomas Cooper de Leon was named for the good friend of his father, the outspokenThomas Cooper, president of theUniversity of South Carolina. He was buried inMagnolia Cemetery,Mobile, Alabama.

• Lamb, Biographical Dict. of the United States, Boston, 1900;
• Allibone, Dict. of Authors, Supplement;
• Who's Who in America, 1903-5
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906)."Leon, Thomas Cooper de".The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.

• Works by Thomas Cooper de Leon atProject Gutenberg
• Works by or about Thomas Cooper de Leon at theInternet Archive

• 1839 births
• American male journalists
• People of South Carolina in the American Civil War
• 1914 deaths
• American dramatists and playwrights
• Jewish American dramatists and playwrights
• Writers from Columbia, South Carolina
• Writers from Mobile, Alabama
• Journalists from Alabama
• American male dramatists and playwrights
• Confederate Jews
• 20th-century American Sephardic Jews
• 19th-century American Sephardic Jews

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