Welcker, Adair

Adair Welcker (1858-1926) was a lawyer and writer, residing in Berkeley, California. He was the author of many plays, poems and other texts. Although he was unable to find a commercial publisher for his works, Welcker printed his volumes at his own expense, and distributed them widely to universities, libraries and publications around the world. Welcker was a regular target of author Ambrose Bierce, appearing in The Devil's Dictionary, Black Beetles in Amber, and other works, as an exemplar of dubious literary merit and inflated self regard.

Adair Welcker, poet and author.

Adair Welcker was a poet and author.

Adair Welcker was the son of US and Confederate military officer, lawyer, public official and professor of mathematics, William Thomas Welcker, and Katy Adair. According to an autobiographical manuscript sent by Welcker to the University of Chicago Library "to be preserved by that institution as carefully as it would any papyrus from Egypt," the author was born in Troy, New York, in 1858, and educated in the east and in California. Welcker identified himself as a "lawyer, scientist and journalist" and is listed in the 1920 US census as a lawyer residing in Berkeley, California. He died in 1926.

Welcker was the author of many plays, poems and other texts. Although he was unable to find a commercial publisher for his works, Welcker printed his volumes at his own expense, and distributed them widely to universities, libraries and publications around the world. His persistence was rewarded with occasional short reviews in journals and newspapers, many expressing scorn, bemusement, or simple bewilderment, but all mined by Welcker for quotation in future works.

Welcker was a regular target of author Ambrose Bierce, appearing in The Devil's Dictionary, Black Beetles in Amber, and other works, as an exemplar of dubious literary merit and inflated self regard.