William Henry Irwin

William Henry "Will" Irwin (1873–1948) was an American author, writer and journalist who was associated with the muckrakers.

Irwin was born September 14, 1873 in Oneida, New York. In his early childhood the Irwin family moved to Clayville, New York, a farming and mining center south of Utica. In about 1878 his father moved to Leadville, Colorado, establishing himself in the lumber business, and brought his family out. When his business failed Irwin's father moved the family to , Colorado. A hotel business there failed too, and the family moved back to Leadville, to a bungalow at 125 West Twelfth Street. In 1889 they moved to Denver, where he graduated from high school. He cured himself of a diagnosed bout of tuberculosis by "roughing it" for a year as a cowboy.

With a loan from his high school teacher Irwin entered Stanford University in September 1894. According to journalism historians Clifford Weigle and David Clark in their biographical sketch of Irwin,

Irwin was forced to withdraw for disciplinary reasons but was readmitted and graduated on May 24, 1899.

In 1901 Irwin got a job as a reporter on the San Francisco Chronicle, eventually rising to Sunday editor. For the San Francisco-based Bohemian Club, he wrote the Grove Play The Hamadryads in 1904. That same year he moved to New York City to take a reporter's position at The New York Sun, then in its heyday under the editorship of Chester Lord and Selah M. Clark. Also in 1904 Irwin co-authored a book of short stories with Gelett Burgess titled, The Picaroons (McClure, Phillips & Co.)

Irwin arrived in New York City the same day as a major disaster—the sinking of the General Slocum. A new reporter on The Sun, he was assigned to work the Bellevue morgue, where the more than 1,000 bodies of the victims of fire and drowning were taken.

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