William Bittle Wells was born in Floyd County, Virginia in 1872. The family moved to California in 1874 and settled in Portland, Oregon in 1881. He graduated from Stanford University in 1897. At Stanford, Wells developed an interest in publishing and publicity and was editor of several school newspapers. In 1898 Wells founded the western magazine, Pacific monthly. Wells began working as an advertising salesman for Sunset magazine and became Northwest editor and manager from 1907-1912. During this time Wells began to publish promotional booklets about regions and cities served by the railroad on the West coast. He next established his own printing and publishing business, Wells and Company (1912-1915). Ater abandoning that venture Wells undertook the management of a new magazine, Better cooking, but that ended when he and the owner failed to agree on the magazine's direction. In 1917, Wells began working at New York Life Insurance Company where he worked for forty years, selling insurance and writing promotional material. He retired from the insurance business in 1940 at age seventy. Wells developed an interest in religion, and after retirement, wrote extensively on Christian religious topics and published several booklets. Wells died in 1960 at the age of eighty-eight.
From the description of William Bittle Wells papers, 1890-1960. (University of Oregon Libraries). WorldCat record id: 53258278
