Nye, Alfred Bourne, 1853-1913.

Nye was private secretary to both the Governor of California and State Controller.

From the description of Papers concerning proposed anthology of western poetry, 1905-1908. (University of California, Berkeley). WorldCat record id: 122564465

Biography

In 1905, Alfred B. Nye, who was at the time private secretary to the governor of California, began collecting poems by California and other Pacific Coast writers, with the intention of publishing a volume of the selections and brief biographies of the authors. Accordingly, he wrote the authors, asking permission to publish certain poems and requesting biographical data. The response was generally very favorable, the authors granting the request and often suggesting the poems they regarded as their best. After the San Francisco earthquake and fire, Nye was compelled to abandon work on the project for many months. In November 1906 he was appointed state controller and found the work so time consuming that there was none to devote to his literary pursuits. To one of the sympathetic poets he wrote:

Moreover, I am wondering whether the good people of the State would not regard it as evidence of dangerous unsoundness if their head bookkeeper (which is what the State Controller is) should be announced as the publisher of a compilation of poetry?

He apparently never completed the project.

From the guide to the Papers Concerning Proposed Anthology of Western Poetry, 1905-1908, (The Bancroft Library)