author
W. T. (William Thornton) Lawson
A late-19th-century American writer remembered for a concise but thoughtful study of how the Mexican War was reflected in books and public writing. His work has the feel of a student scholar already looking past battles to the way history gets told.
1 Audiobook
Essay on the Literature of the Mexican War
by W. T. (William Thornton) Lawson
About the author
W. T. Lawson, identified in library and archival records as William Thornton Lawson, is known for Essay on the Literature of the Mexican War. The work appeared in 1882 and is associated with Columbia College, New York, where it is described on the cover as a senior class essay.
Rather than retelling the conflict itself, Lawson focused on how the Mexican War had been written about. That gives his book a distinctive angle: it is an early attempt to survey the war's literature, weigh different writers, and think about how a major national event was being remembered on the page.
Very little biographical information about Lawson was confirmed in the sources retrieved here, so the surviving picture is limited. What can be said with confidence is that his name remains attached to a small but interesting piece of 19th-century literary and historical criticism.