A Biography of Lewis Gaston Leary, Early 20th Century Pastor of Huguenot Memorial Presbyterian Church in Pelham

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In the early years of the 20th century, Dr. Lewis Gaston Leary served as the pastor of the Huguenot Memorial Presbyterian Church in the Village of Pelham Manor. Dr. Leary was an avid traveler and the author of many travel articles published in a host of travel magazines. A brief biography of Dr. Leary, published in 1908, summarized his life, his travels and his writings. The text of that biography appears immediately below.

"Lewis Gaston Leary, whose story, 'A Postponed Proposal,' was printed in the Red Book for April, is a Presbyterian clergyman. He was born in 1877 at Elizabeth, N. J., and was graduated from Rutgers College, with the degree of B. Sc., in 1897, where he took first Scientific honor, Rhetorical honor, and prizes in history, debate, oratory, and metaphysics. In 1900 he received from New York University the degree of M. A. (English literature), and in 1905 the degree of Ph. D. (Arabic and Hebrew). Dr. Leary has traveled in Great Britain, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Syria -- where he was for three years instructor in the American College in Beirut. He presented the first English play ever given in the Turkish empire, Roumania, Servia, and other countries, and speaks five modern languages. He is an authority on Semitic literature and Old Testament exegesis, and lectures on the latter topic at various summer schools. He has just completed one hundred encyclopedia articles on Oriental topics. In the last four years Dr. Leary has had twenty or thirty travel articles published in various magazines. Scribner's has already published two, and has accepted a third, 'The River of Adonis.' Dr. Leary finds his travel articles easily marketed, and as they pay so much better than short stories, he had done little in that line, although he has a dozen or so tales in various stages of completeness. He has in preparation another dozen travel articles, which he contemplates putting into a book. He also gives travel lectures. At present he is the very busy pastor of the Huguenot Memorial Church of Pelham Manor, N. Y., and writing and lecturing have to be relegated to odd hours. Dr. Leary is married, and has two boys, one and two years old."

Source: Writers of the Day in The Writer: A Monthly Magazine For Literary Workers, Vol. XX, Jan. - Dec., 1908, pp. 76-77 (Boston, MA: The Writer Publishing Co. 1908).

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