author
Charles Mills Gayley
1858–1932
A pioneering Berkeley scholar, he helped shape the university’s English department while writing on myth, literature, and the teaching of poetry. His career joined deep classical learning with a lively interest in how stories endure across time.
2 Audiobooks
Francis Beaumont: Dramatist A Portrait, with Some Account of His Circle, Elizabethan and Jacobean, And of His Association with John Fletcher
by Charles Mills Gayley
The Classic Myths in English Literature and in Art (2nd ed.) (1911) Based Originally on Bulfinch's "Age of Fable" (1855)
by Charles Mills Gayley, Thomas Bulfinch
About the author
Born in Shanghai in 1858 to Presbyterian missionary parents, Charles Mills Gayley later became one of the most influential early humanities professors at the University of California, Berkeley. He joined the faculty in 1889 and taught English and classics, eventually serving as academic dean as well as a leading figure in the growth of Berkeley’s English department.
Gayley was known not only as a teacher and university leader but also as a literary scholar. His books and essays explored mythology, Shakespeare, and English poetry, and he worked to make literature feel connected, memorable, and alive for students. Berkeley later honored his importance by naming a long-running lecture series after him.
He died in Berkeley in 1932 after more than four decades at the university. For listeners interested in older literary scholarship, he stands out as a writer who helped define how literature was studied in American universities during the early twentieth century.