{{Short description|American writer (1880–1956)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=December 2023}} '''Rollo Walter Brown''' (March 15, 1880, in Crooksville, Ohio – October 13, 1956, in Cambridge, Massachusetts) was an American writer and teacher of rhetoric.

== Biography == His hometown of Crooksville was characterized by mining and formed the basis (fictitiously identified as "Wiggam's Glory, Ohio") for several of his books. A major character in the novels aspires to leave mining but does not succeed, thereafter setting his hopes on his son, who then attended Harvard University and escaped southeastern Ohio. Brown himself graduated from Ohio Northern University in 1903 and earned a master's degree from Harvard University in 1905. He was married to Ella Abigail Brocklesby. He became a professor of rhetoric and composition at Wabash College (1905–1920),<ref>{{Cite book |title=Faculty profile |date=1909 |volume=9 |pages=12}}</ref> then at Carleton College (1920–1923), then lecturer in English at Harvard (from 1923).

With several books (''The Art of Writing English, How the French Boy Learns to Write,'' and ''The Writer's Art''), he shared his knowledge of written rhetoric with a large audience. He believed, in the end, that he could better use his talents outside the classroom, thereafter devoting himself entirely to journalism. He collected articles and published them as books, such as ''The Creative Spirit: An Inquiry into American Life'' (1925).

Brown evolved into a biographer. As a summer resident at MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire, Brown formed an intimate friendship with the poet Edwin Arlington Robinson; his book ''Next Door to a Poet'' was dedicated to him. In addition to a series of four novels (''The Firemakers, Toward Romance, The Hillikin,'' and ''As of the Gods'') dealing with labor unions and the coal industry in Ohio, his fascination with literary portraiture continued, such as the haunting observations in ''I Travel by Train'' (1939). ''Lonely Americans'' (1929) captured the feel of the USA during the Depression Era.

He was a sought-after keynote speaker.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Commencement speaker at Oberlin |date=1929 |volume=25 |pages=295, 302 |issue=10}}</ref> He was against mixed universities because it was at the expense of the humanities; men would leave the fine arts subjects to women in the case of a mixed student body.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Rollo Walter Brown Scores Co-Education |date=February 4, 1925 |pages=2}}</ref>

He died in 1956 at age 76.

== Selected books ==

* The Art of Writing English; a Book for College Classes [with Nathaniel Waring Barnes] (1913). * The Writer's Art. By Those Who have Practised It (1921).<ref>{{Cite book |title=Book review |date=November 1921 |volume=114 |pages=262}}</ref> * Dean Briggs (1926). * Lonely Americans (1929). * The Firemakers. A Novel of Environment (1931).<ref>{{cite web|access-date=2022-12-30|language=en|title=Erstauflage wird versteigert|url=https://www.qbbooks.com/pages/books/71558/rollo-walter-brown/the-firemakers-a-novel-of-environment}}<!-- auto-translated by Module:CS1 translator --></ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=A Guide to the Best New Books |date=December 1931 |volume=28 |pages=150 |issue=4}}</ref> * Toward Romance (1932). * On Writing the Biography of a Modest Man (1935). * As of the Gods (1937). * Next Door to a Poet [A memoir of Edwin Arlington Robinson] (1937). * I Travel by Train (1939). * There Must Be a New Song (1942). * Harvard Yard in the Golden Age (1948). * The Creative Spirit – An Inquiry into American Life (1952). * Dr. Howe and the Forsyth Infirmary (1952).<ref>{{Cite book |title=A Great Dentist (Review) |date=October 10, 1953 |volume=2 |pages=816 |issue=4840}}</ref> * How the French Boy Learns to Write. A Study in the Teaching of the Mother Tongue (1915).<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-4781.1926.tb00391.x |title=The Dictation Exercise: Its Variations and Values |date=May 1926 |volume=10 |pages=483–490 |doi=10.1111/j.1540-4781.1926.tb00391.x |issue=8|last1=Leavenworth |first1=Clarence E. |journal=The Modern Language Journal |url-access=subscription }}</ref> * The Hills Are Strong (1953) Autobiographie.

== References == <references />

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Rollo Walter}} Category:1956 deaths Category:1880 births Category:The Atlantic (magazine) people Category:Wabash College faculty Category:Harvard University faculty Category:Carleton College faculty Category:Ohio Northern University alumni Category:20th-century American biographers Category:Great Depression in the United States Category:Harvard University alumni