William Oliver Stevens (October 7, 1878 - January 15, 1955) was an American writer and Professor for the

United States Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (US Naval Academy, USNA, or Navy) is a federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as Secretary of the Navy. The Naval Academy ...

. Stevens was born in

Yangon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

. His grandfather was Francis Mason a famous missionary. He moved to the United States and graduated from

Colby College Colby College is a private liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine. It was founded in 1813 as the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, then renamed Waterville College after the city where it resides. The donations of Christian philant ...

in 1899 with a B.A. in English literature. In 1903 he received a Ph.D. from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

. He taught at the United States Naval Academy (1905-1924) as Senior Professor and Executive of the English Department. Stevens was also interested in

ghost hunting Ghost hunting is the process of investigating locations that are reported to be haunted by ghosts. Typically, a ghost-hunting team will attempt to collect evidence supporting the existence of paranormal activity. Ghost hunters use a variety of ...

and

psychical research Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena (extrasensory perception, telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis (also called telekinesis), and psychometry) and other paranormal claims, for example, those related to near- ...

.Jones, Louis C. (1947). ''Reviewed Work: Unbidden Guests: A Real Book of Ghosts''. ''

Journal of American Folklore The ''Journal of American Folklore'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the American Folklore Society. Since 2003, this has been done on its behalf by the University of Illinois Press. The journal has been published since the society' ...

''. Vol. 60, No. 236. pp. 194-195.

Publications

* Nantucket: The Far-Away Island (1936) * Charleston: Historic City of Gardens (1939) * Discovering Long Island'' (1939) * ''Pistols at Ten Paces'' (1940) * ''Washington, the Cinderella City'' (1943) * ''Unbidden Guests: A Book of Real Ghosts'' (1945) * ''A History of Sea Power'' (1947) * ''The Mystery of Dreams'' (1949) * ''Psychics and Common Sense'' (1953)

References

External links

1878 births 1955 deaths American non-fiction writers American parapsychologists United States Naval Academy alumni {{Para-psych-stub