Robert Alexander Wason (April 6, 1874 – May 11, 1955) was an American writer. He was known for writing novels predominantly on a western theme, and short stories, some of them serials. Wason was born in

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in Lucas County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is located at the western end of Lake Erie along the Maumee River. Toledo is the List of cities in Ohio, fourth-most populous city in Ohio and List of United Sta ...

to Robert Alexander Wason, a merchant, and Gertrude Louise Paddock. He went to High School in

Delphi, Indiana Delphi () is a city in and the county seat of Carroll County, Indiana, Carroll County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. Located twenty minutes northeast of Lafayette, Indiana, Lafayette, it is part of the Lafayette, Indiana Lafayette, Indiana metro ...

and then clerked for his father for eight years, punctuated by episodes of tramping and camping in the west. Wason served in the

U. S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

(artillery) for nine months during the

Spanish–American War The Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine (1889), USS ''Maine'' in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the ...

(1898–99), and worked in a wide variety of jobs and places before settling down to a career writing, with his westerns incorporating items from his life's experiences. In addition to clerking for his father, he worked as an office boy, a grip man on the

San Francisco cable car system The San Francisco cable car system is the world's last manually operated Cable car (railway), cable car system and an icon of the city of San Francisco. The system forms part of the Intermodal passenger transport, intermodal urban transport net ...

, a miner in a

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

mercury mine, and as a farmer in Delphi, Indiana. Over his life he lived in Ohio, Indiana, San Francisco,

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Orr's Island, Maine Orr's Island is an island in Casco Bay and the Gulf of Maine, part of the Atlantic Ocean. The island is within the town of Harpswell, Maine, Harpswell, Maine, United States. Harriet Beecher Stowe lived briefly on Orr's Island, and used it as the ...

, Temple,

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

Arden, Delaware Arden is a village in New Castle County, Delaware, United States, founded in 1900 as a radical Georgist single-tax community by sculptor Frank Stephens and architect William Lightfoot Price. The village occupies approximately 160 acres, with ...

Norwalk, Connecticut Norwalk is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The city, part of the New York metropolitan area, New York Metropolitan Area, is the List of municipalities of Connecticut by population, sixth-most populous city in Connecticut ...

, and

Mountain Lakes, New Jersey Mountain Lakes is a borough in Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, and a suburb of New York City. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 4,472, an increase of 312 (+7.5%) from the 2010 census count of 4 ...

. Wason married Emma Louise Brownell in

Peru, Indiana Peru is a city in, and the county seat of, Miami County, Indiana, Miami County, Indiana, United States. It is north of Indianapolis. The population was 11,073 at the 2020 census, making it the most populous community in Miami County. Peru is loc ...

in 1911. They had two sons and a daughter. He died in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey.

Works

*''Babe Randolph's Turning Point'' (1904) *''The Wolves'' (1908) * ''Nachette'' (1909) (with Ned Nye) *''Happy Hawkins'' (1909) *''The Steering Wheel'' (1910) *''The Knight Errant'' (1911) *''The Dog and the Child and the Ancient Sailor Man'' (1911) *''Friar Tuck'' (1912) *''And Then Came Jean'' (1913) *''Happy Hawkins in the Panhandle'' (1914) *''Correspondence with

H. L. Mencken Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, ...

'' (1916) *''Happy Hawkins again'' (1925)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wason, Robert Alexander 1874 births 1955 deaths 20th-century American novelists American male novelists Western (genre) writers Writers from Toledo, Ohio People from Delphi, Indiana 20th-century American male writers Novelists from Ohio