author
William L. (William Lawrence) Merry
1842–1911
A seafaring American diplomat who spent years representing the United States in Central America, he also wrote forcefully about trade and the proposed Nicaragua Canal. His surviving work offers a vivid glimpse of late-19th-century politics, commerce, and U.S. interests in the region.
1 Audiobook
San Francisco and the Nicaragua Canal
by William L. (William Lawrence) Merry
About the author
William Lawrence Merry was an American diplomat and author best known for his long service as U.S. envoy in Central America. Reliable sources agree that he served as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and El Salvador around the turn of the 20th century, and the U.S. State Department records him in those posts from the late 1890s into the early 1900s.
Before and alongside his diplomatic career, Merry published works connected to trade and interoceanic transit, including The Nicaragua Canal, the Gateway Between the Oceans and San Francisco and the Nicaragua Canal. Those titles suggest the subjects that mattered most to him: shipping, commerce, and the strategic importance of a canal through Central America.
Some catalogs list his birth year as 1842, while major reference sources such as the U.S. State Department and Wikipedia give 1835. Because the records are not fully consistent, it is safest to say that he died in 1911 and was active as a writer and diplomat during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.