Lewis, Oscar, 1893-1992

San Francisco born author and historian of the West.

From the description of Oscar Lewis correspondence : additions, 1931-1959. (University of California, Berkeley). WorldCat record id: 26872328

American author.

From the description of Correspondence with Caroline Wenzel : TLS, 1938-1957. (University of California, Berkeley). WorldCat record id: 122647609

Biographical Information

Oscar Lewis (1893-1992) was a historian and author whose work was defined by the literary, social and cultural history of the American West. Born in San Francisco to William F. Lewis and Anna Walter Lewis, and raised in the towns of Red Bluff and Sebastopol, Lewis briefly attended the University of California, Berkeley (1912) and subsequently dropped out to pursue writing professionally. During World War I, he served with an ambulance squad affiliated with the university, and remained in Europe after the Armistice to write. He emerged as a writer of note in the 1930s.

Initially publishing short stories in such magazines as Boy's Life, Lewis went on to write some of the most seminial books on the history and culture of California and San Francisco. Among these were Silver Kings, I Remember Christine, Bay Window Bohemia, A History of San Francisco and The Uncertain Journey . He is best known for his book The Big Four which chronicles the efforts of Leland Stanford, Collis P. Huntington, Mark Hopkins and Charles Crocker to build the western portion of the first transcontinental railroad, the Central Pacific Railroad.

He was a member of the Bohemian Club and the Westerners, Secretary of the Book Club of California and served on the San Francisco Art Commission from 1944-1960.

From the guide to the Oscar Lewis papers, undated, 1859-1988, 1930-1965, (The Bancroft Library.)