William Lyon Phelps (January 2, 1865 – August 21, 1943) was an American author, critic and scholar. He taught the first American university course on the modern novel. He had a radio show, wrote a daily syndicated newspaper column, lectured frequently, and published numerous books and articles.
Early life and education
Phelps's father Sylvanus Dryden Phelps was a Baptist minister, and the family had deep ancestral roots in Massachusetts Bay Colony. William, as a child, was a friend of Frank Hubbard, the son of Langdon Hubbard, a lumber merchant who founded Huron City, Michigan.
Phelps earned a B.A. and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Yale in 1887, writing an honors thesis on the Idealism of George Berkeley. As an undergraduate, he established The Pundits, a secret society.
He earned his Ph.D. in 1891 from Yale and in the same year his A.M. from Harvard.
Academia
Phelps taught at Harvard for a year, and then returned to Yale where he was offered a position in the English department. He was appointed Lampson Professor of English Literature in 1901.
Phelps's courses were popular and well attended. He had an engaging speaking style. He wrote about English and European literature. During trips to Europe he met many of the leading writers of the turn of the 19th century.
In 1915, Phelps encouraged Alexander Smith Cochran to dedicate the Cochran family's extensive collection of Shakespearean folios and other rare books to endow a private club for the arts and humanities. This became the Elizabethan Club.
He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1921 and the American Philosophical Society in 1927. Phelps taught at Yale for 41 years before retiring in 1933. From 1941 to 1943 he was the director of the Hall of Fame for Great Americans.
