Wescott, Glenway

Wescott, Glenway

(1901–87) writer, poet; born in Kewaskum, Wis. He studied at the University of Chicago (1917–19). Independently wealthy, he began his writing career as a poet, but is best known for his short stories and novels, especially The Grandmothers (1926). He lived in Germany (1921–22), and in France (c. 1925–33), where he mixed with Gertrude Stein and the American expatriate community. (Robert Prentiss, a character in Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, is based on him.) He returned to America and settled near Hampton, N.J. His novel, The Pilgrim Hawk: A Love Story (1940), was praised by the critics, and was followed by Apartment in Athens (1945), a popular success. From then on he ceased to write fiction, although he published his essays and edited the works of others.