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The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Samuel Wells Williams (1812–1884)
Williams, Samuel Wells. An American philologist and distinguished Chinese scholar; born in Utica, NY, 1812; died in New Haven, Feb. 17, 1884. He assisted in preparing a Chinese, and afterwards a Japanese, dictionary; was interpreter for Commodore Perry in Japan, 1853–54; was secretary of legation in China, 1855–57, and again 1862–76. He was professor of Chinese at Yale, 1876–84, and was president of the American Oriental Society. He published: ‘Easy Lessons in Chinese’ (1842), followed by ‘Chinese and English Vocabulary’ (1843), and ‘Tonic Dictionary of the Chinese’ (1874). His greatest work is ‘The Middle Kingdom’ (2 vols., 1883), which has done excellent service in making Chinese history and conditions known to the public.