William E. (William Edward) Gibbs

Project Gutenberg lists works under the name William E. Gibbs, which confirms him as an author whose writing has entered the public domain and remains available to modern readers.

Reliable biographical information about him appears to be scarce online, and I wasn't able to confirm personal details such as his birth and death dates, nationality, or a fuller literary history from the sources I found. Because of that, the safest picture is of an author known today chiefly through surviving editions of his work rather than through a well-documented public biography.

That bit of mystery can be part of the appeal: readers often meet writers like this through the stories first, then piece together their place in publishing history from the traces left behind.