William R. (William Reynolds) Eyster

Born on October 14, 1841, in Johnstown, New York, William Reynolds Eyster was an American author whose working life stretched beyond fiction. Reference sources describe him not only as a writer, but also as an editor, educator, and lawyer, suggesting a career shaped by several different corners of public and literary life.

His best-known book is Free Trapper's Pass; or, The Gold-Seeker's Daughter, published in London by Beadle and Company in 1865. That places him among the many nineteenth-century authors who contributed to the era's appetite for fast-moving popular fiction and adventure tales.

Eyster died on July 17, 1918, in Topeka, Kansas. Reliable biographical information about him appears to be limited, which makes his surviving work especially valuable as a record of the kind of fiction readers were enjoying in the Victorian period.