author
Oscar Wegelin
1876–1970
Best known as a pioneering bibliographer of early American literature, this longtime bookseller and scholar helped map the country’s early plays, poetry, and fiction. His careful reference works are still valued by readers and researchers interested in the beginnings of American writing.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Working in the rare-book world from a young age, Oscar Wegelin built a reputation as a bookseller, author, and one of the leading bibliographers of early American literature. Archival collections at Brown University describe him as an important figure in the study of early American writings, and library catalogs show the wide range of his bibliographical work.
He is especially associated with reference books such as Early American Plays, 1714–1830, Early American Fiction, 1774–1830, and Early American Poetry. Rather than writing literary history in a grand style, he did something just as lasting: he gathered, organized, and preserved the record of what early American authors published, making later scholarship much easier.
Wegelin also wrote on individual authors and literary subjects, and his papers include correspondence, poems, plays, and prose. A suitable confirmed portrait image was not available from the sources reviewed, so no profile image is included.