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 &ldquo;Modern German Literature&rdquo; (1895); &ldquo;Modern French Literature&rdquo; (1897); and &ldquo;A Century of French Fiction&rdquo; (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) &ldquo;Colonial Prose and Poetry&rdquo; (1902), an anthology.