{{Short description|American writer}}{{Infobox person | name = Wilson Follett | birth_name = Roy Wilson Follett | birth_date = March 21, 1887 | birth_place = North Attleboro, Massachusetts | death_date = January 7, 1963 | occupation = Writer | children = Barbara Newhall Follett }} thumb|"The modern novel: study of the purpose and the meaning of fiction" by Follett '''Roy Wilson Follett''' (March 21, 1887 – January 7, 1963)<ref>"Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:DZV8-16W2 : 16 August 2021), Roy Wilson Follett, 21 Mar 1887; citing Birth, Attleboro, Bristol, Massachusetts, United States, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston; FHL microfilm 007577028.</ref><ref>[https://archives-manuscripts.dartmouth.edu/agents/people/5183 "Follett, Wilson, 1887-1963"]. Dartmouth Library Archives & Manuscripts. Retrieved November 2, 2022.</ref> was an American writer known for writing the draft form of what became ''Follett's Modern American Usage'', which was unfinished at his death. The book was completed and edited by his friend Jacques Barzun (in collaboration with six other people who helped with the editing) and published posthumously.

== Early life == Follett was born Roy Wilson Follett in North Attleboro, Massachusetts on March 21, 1887. He graduated from Harvard College in 1909, with an BA in English.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Follett, Wilson, 1887-1963 {{!}} Dartmouth Libraries Archives & Manuscripts |url=https://archives-manuscripts.dartmouth.edu/agents/people/5183 |access-date=2026-03-19 |website=archives-manuscripts.dartmouth.edu}}</ref>

== Career == Follett taught English at Texas Agricultural & Mechanical College, Dartmouth College, and finally, Brown University.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=y8jEScWhdUEC&pg=PR22 "My Dear Friend": Further Letters to and about Joseph Conrad]</ref> He left teaching in 1918, when he decided to pursue writing full-time instead.<ref name=":0" />

Follett then worked in publishing, first at Yale University Press and later Alfred A. Knopf. In the 1940s, he wrote essays for ''The Atlantic''.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-03-14 |title=Barbara Newhall Follett: The Child Novelist Who Later Vanished Into Thin Air |url=https://www.mentalfloss.com/literature/authors/barbara-newhall-follett-author-mystery |access-date=2026-03-19 |website=Mental Floss |language=en-US}}</ref>

In 1921, he was one of the dedicatees of James Branch Cabell's novel ''Figures of Earth''. He also edited ''The Work of Stephen Crane'' in twelve volumes (1925–27), the first collected edition of Crane's writings. His novel ''No More Sea'' came in third in the voting for the 1934 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.<ref>Complete Historical Handbook of the Pulitzer Prize System 1917-2000 by H. and E. Fischer</ref>

== Personal life ==

Follett's wife, Helen, was also a writer.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Helen Follett papers, 1919-1969, bulk 1928-1939 |url=https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/archives/cul-4078772 |access-date=2026-03-19 |website=findingaids.library.columbia.edu}}</ref> In 1914, the couple had a daughter, Barbara Newhall Follett, who was a child prodigy author and published her first novel at the age of 12. In 1928, Follett abandoned his wife and Barbara for a younger woman, Margaret Whipple, whom he had met at work.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Callahan Henry |first=Patti |date=16 March 2025 |title=No Body. No Clues. What Happened to Child Prodigy Barbara Newhall Follett? |url=https://people.com/no-body-no-clues-what-happened-to-child-prodigy-barbara-newhall-follett-exclusive-11697290 |website=People}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=farksoo |date=2012-02-15 |title=Biography |url=https://farksolia.org/about-barbara-follett/ |access-date=2026-03-19 |website=Farksolia |language=en-US}}</ref>

In 1939, at the age of 25, Barbara disappeared. In 1941, Follett published an essay asking Barbara to contact him in The Atlantic entitled "To a Daughter, One Year Lost: From Her Father".<ref>{{Cite news |date=1941-05-01 |title=To a Daughter, One Year Lost: From Her Father |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1941/05/to-a-daughter-one-year-lost-from-her-father/654483/ |access-date=2026-03-19 |work=The Atlantic |language=en |issn=2151-9463}}</ref>

== In popular culture ==

* Follett's daughter Barbara and Follett himself are featured in the novel "The Story She Left Behind" by novelist Patti Callahan Henry<ref name=":1" />

== External links ==

* [https://www.theatlantic.com/author/wilson-follett/ Follett's page at the Atlantic]

==References== {{Reflist}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Follett, Wilson}} Category:1887 births Category:1963 deaths Category:Writers of style guides Category:Brown University faculty Category:Harvard University alumni Category:20th-century American male writers