Robert Alexander Wason

Robert Alexander Wason was an American writer. He was most known for authoring western-themed novels and short stories, some of which were serialized. Wason was born in Toledo, Ohio, to merchants Robert Alexander Wason and Gertrude Louise Paddock. He attended high school in Delphi, Indiana, and then clerked for his father for eight years, interrupted by periods of tramping and camping throughout the West. Wason served in the United States Army (artillery) for nine months during the Spanish...See more

Robert Alexander Wason was an American writer. He was most known for authoring western-themed novels and short stories, some of which were serialized. Wason was born in Toledo, Ohio, to merchants Robert Alexander Wason and Gertrude Louise Paddock. He attended high school in Delphi, Indiana, and then clerked for his father for eight years, interrupted by periods of tramping and camping throughout the West. Wason served in the United States Army (artillery) for nine months during the Spanish-American War (1898-99) and worked in a number of vocations and locations before settling into a career penning westerns, which incorporate elements from his real experiences. In addition to clerking for his father, he worked as an office boy, a grip for the San Francisco cable car system, a miner in a Nevada mercury mine, and a farmer near Delphi, Indiana. Throughout his life, he lived in Ohio, Indiana, San Francisco, Detroit, Orr's Island, Maine, Temple, Arizona, Arden, Delaware, Norwalk, Connecticut, and Mountain Lakes, New Jersey. Wason married Emma Louise Brownell in Peru, Indiana, in 1911. They had two sons and one daughter. He died at Mountain Lakes, New Jersey. See less