author

Henry Wysham Lanier

b. 1873

A versatile American writer and editor, he moved easily between folklore, history, biography, and New York local history. His books range from lively retellings of myth to visual history, including a well-known collaboration with photographer Berenice Abbott on Greenwich Village.

1 Audiobook

A Book of Giants: Tales of Very Tall Men of Myth, Legend, History, and Science.

A Book of Giants: Tales of Very Tall Men of Myth, Legend, History, and Science.

by Henry Wysham Lanier

About the author

Born in 1873, Henry Wysham Lanier was an American author whose work covered an unusually wide range of subjects. Records for his books show him writing about mythology and legend, Civil War photography, and the character of old New York, with a style aimed at general readers rather than specialists.

Among the works associated with him are A Book of Giants, Photographing the Civil War, and Greenwich Village: Today & Yesterday, the 1949 volume created with photographs by Berenice Abbott. That mix of topics suggests a writer drawn to both storytelling and the way history can be made vivid through images and memorable detail.

Some catalog records list his life dates as 1873–1958, while at least one bookseller record gives 1874–1958, so the exact birth year is not completely consistent across the sources found here. No suitable verified portrait image could be confirmed from the materials retrieved.