author
Best remembered for preserving and annotating classic nursery lore, this elusive early-20th-century writer is associated with a substantial edition of Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes, Tales and Jingles. Surviving records also link the name to an 1889 historical work about Peter the Great and Russia's ambitions in Asia.
Very little biographical information about W. Gannon is easy to confirm, but library and public-domain records do show the name attached to at least two books that survived in print and digital archives. One is Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes, Tales and Jingles, published in 1902 with notes and critical remarks, suggesting an editor or compiler interested in collecting and explaining traditional verse for readers and families.
The same name also appears on Wonderful Development of Peter the Great's Pet Projects, according to His Last Will and Testament, published in 1889. That title points to a very different side of the authorial record: historical and political commentary, especially on Russia, shipbuilding, and imperial expansion.
Because dependable personal details are scarce, W. Gannon is best understood through the works themselves rather than through a well-documented life story. What stands out is a curious range, from children's rhymes to geopolitical history, and a small but intriguing footprint in older print culture.