William F. (William Francis) Gekle

William Francis Gekle was an American author and historian whose best-known book is Arthur Machen: Weaver of Fantasy, first published in 1949. Archival records also describe him as a businessman and author, and they show that he assembled a substantial collection of correspondence and related material connected to the Welsh writer Arthur Machen.

That combination of fan, researcher, and collector gives Gekle’s writing its character. Rather than approaching literature from a distance, he seems to have worked close to the documents and personal networks around the writers he admired. His study of Machen remains the work most closely associated with his name and reflects a lasting interest in fantasy, the supernatural, and literary biography.

Catalog and library records also connect Gekle with The lower reaches of the Hudson River, a later historical work published in 1982. Together, these records suggest a writer with wide-ranging interests, moving from literary criticism to regional history while keeping a strong documentary and archival sense in his work.