author
William Oliver Stevens
1878–1955
An American writer and educator whose books ranged from naval history and school stories to psychic research, he brought a teacher’s clarity and a storyteller’s energy to everything he wrote. Much of his career was shaped by years at the U.S. Naval Academy and later leadership roles in American schools.
1 Audiobook
A History of Sea Power
by William Oliver Stevens, Allan F. (Allan Ferguson) Westcott
About the author
Born in Rangoon, Burma, on October 7, 1878, William Oliver Stevens came to the United States as a child and was educated in Maine and Massachusetts. He earned a B.A. in English from Colby College in 1899 and a Ph.D. in English literature from Yale in 1903, then began a long teaching career marked by both scholarship and public writing.
Stevens taught at the United States Naval Academy from 1905 to 1924, where he rose to senior professor and executive of the English department. He later served as headmaster of the Roger Ascham School in White Plains, headmaster of Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, and for a time was dean of the School of Literature and Journalism at Oglethorpe University.
As an author, he wrote widely on naval history and related subjects, with books including A History of Sea Power and The Story of Our Navy. Other sources also note his interest in psychical research and list later works on dreams and the paranormal. He died in January 1955.