author

Claude H. Wetmore

1863–1944

Best known for adventurous historical fiction and early speculative tales, this American writer also worked as an editor and journalist. His books often draw on travel, politics, and big ideas, giving them an energetic turn-of-the-century feel.

1 Audiobook

Incaland

Incaland

by Claude H. Wetmore

About the author

Claude H. Wetmore was an American author and editor born in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, on November 7, 1863, and he died in Ohio on April 29, 1944. Biographical records describe him as Claude Hazeltine Wetmore, educated in public schools, at Western Reserve University, and at the École Polytechnique in Lausanne, Switzerland. Those same records note that he spent about ten years traveling in South America and Europe.

That background shows up in his writing. Wetmore published adventure novels including Incaland and In a Brazilian Jungle, and he also wrote Sweepers of the Sea, an early speculative novel noted for its imaginative future-war and lost-civilization ideas. His work mixes travel-minded curiosity with fast-moving storytelling.

He was active in journalism as well as fiction. Sources describe him as a city editor at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, an editor of Wetmore's Journal of St. Louis, and the president of The Pan-American Press Publishing Co. He is also linked to the early muckraking era through the 1902 McClure's article "Tweed Days in St. Louis," written with Lincoln Steffens.