The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Wells, Benjamin Willis
WELLS, Benjamin Willis, American
journalist and author: b. Walpole, Cheshire County,
N. H., 31 Jan. 1856. He was graduated from
Harvard in 1877, studied also at Berlin, was a
Fellow of the Johns Hopkins University, in
1891-98 he was professor of modern languages
in the University of the South (Sewanee,
Franklin County, Tenn.) and from 1899 to 1912
he was a member of the staff of The Churchman
(New York). His chief publications are
“Modern German Literature” (1895); “Modern
French Literature” (1897); and “A Century of
French Fiction” (1898), historical and critical
studies. He also edited numerous German and
French texts, contributed largely to encyclopedias
and periodicals, and edited (with W. P.
Trent) “Colonial Prose and Poetry” (1902), an
anthology.