William Lyon Phelps

Born in New Haven, Connecticut, on January 2, 1865, he studied at Yale and Harvard before returning to Yale, where he taught English for decades and became one of the university’s best-known professors. He is often remembered for helping popularize the study of contemporary literature and for teaching one of the first American university courses on the modern novel.

His influence reached far beyond campus. He wrote widely on literature, published many books and essays, lectured across the country, and later spoke to a broad public through a syndicated newspaper column and radio. That mix of scholarship and plainspoken enthusiasm made him an unusually visible literary figure in the first half of the twentieth century.

Phelps died in New Haven on August 21, 1943. He remains an appealing figure for readers who enjoy authors and critics who treated books not as academic trophies, but as part of everyday life.