author
Erwin W. (Erwin William) Roessler
1880–1926
A teacher and language scholar from New York, he helped create practical readers that made Spanish and German more approachable for beginners. His best-known work, coauthored with Alfred Remy, reflects a clear, classroom-tested style aimed at real students.
1 Audiobook
A First Spanish Reader
by Erwin W. (Erwin William) Roessler, Alfred Remy
About the author
Erwin W. Roessler, also listed as Erwin William Eugene Roessler, was an early 20th-century educator and author of language textbooks. Title pages and library records identify him as a Ph.D. and as chairman or head of the modern language department at the High School of Commerce in New York City.
He is best known for A First Spanish Reader, written with Alfred Remy, and for A First German Reader. These books were designed for students at the beginning of language study, using simple selections, questions, and vocabulary to build confidence step by step. He also wrote The Soliloquy in German Drama, showing a more scholarly side alongside his classroom work.
An obituary published in 1926 notes that Roessler died on October 23, 1926, in a train-crossing accident in Golden Bridge, New York. Though only a small amount of biographical detail is easy to confirm today, his surviving books suggest a teacher deeply interested in making language learning clear, direct, and useful.