Whitcomb, Selden Lincoln, 1866-1930

Selden Lincoln Whitcomb was an Iowa author and poet who graduated from Grinnell College in 1887, an institution where he later taught (1895-1905) and served as Chair of the English Department. He earned a master's degree from Columbia University and also studied at Cornell, Harvard, and the University of Chicago. In addition to Grinnell, Whitcomb also taught at Iowa State Teachers College (Iowa State University) and Stockton Academy (Kansas). He published a series of scholarly monographs--among which were such titles as "Chronological Outlines of American Literature" (1894) and "The Study of the Novel" (1905)--and produced several books of poetry including "Autumn Notes in Iowa" (1914).