Charles William Wallace was born at Hopkins, Mo. , the son of Thomas Dickey and Olive (McEwen) Wallace. His father, a farmer and county judge, was a descendant of Thomas Wallace, who emigrated from Ireland in 1726 and settled in New Hampshire.
Wallace was educated in public schools, took the degree of B. S. at Western Normal College, Shenandoah, Iowa, in 1885, and received the degree of A. B. at the University of Nebraska in 1898. He had graduate work at Nebraska (1900 - 02), at the University of Chicago, and at various German universities (1904 - 06). He received the degree of Ph. D. from the University of Freiburg in Breisgau in 1906.
His pedagogical experience included teaching in country schools, in normal schools in Iowa and Nebraska, and the principalship of a preparatory school to the University of Nebraska (1897 - 1900) which he founded. He was assistant instructor in English at the University of Nebraska (1901 - 03), instructor, adjunct professor, and assistant professor in successive years, associate professor (1907 - 12), and professor of English dramatic literature (1912), a title he retained until his death. He is bestknown for his researches in Shakespeare and the Tudor drama, which he carried on from 1907 to 1916. He and his wife examined in England, they reported, over five million original records, finding many documents of interest and importance, several groups of which Wallace published. During 1916 and 1917 he lectured on Shakespeare before learned societies and universities throughout the United States. In 1918 he went to Wichita Falls, Tex. , on an extended leave of absence. He had long interested himself in oil geology, and he entered the venturesome oil industry late in life as an independent operator with the object of obtaining funds for the scholarly investigations to which he was devoted. His first successful developments were in Wichita County; in 1922 he bought rights in Archer County and later made further purchases, obtaining large holdings in a region previously thought dry. He personally directed drilling operations, and his ventures brought large returns. He died of cancer in Wichita Falls in 1932. At the time of his death he was working on a collection of records pertaining to Shakespeare and the English stage which he had planned for years to publish. His wife was associated with him in study at the University of Nebraska, in his London researches, and even in his management of his oil fields. She lacked his advanced academic training but was a rapid and accurate worker, much the quicker worker, indeed, of the two. Wallace's publications include Spider-Webs in Verse (1892), Globe Theatre Apparel (1909) and Keysar vs. Burbage and Others (1910), both printed privately in London, The Evolution of the English Drama up to Shakespeare (Berlin, 1912), and a series of articles in University Studies of the University of Nebraska: "The Newly-Discovered Shakespeare Documents", "The Children of the Chapel at Blackfriars, 1597-1603", "Three London Theatres of Shakespeare's Time", "Shakespeare and His London Associates", and "The First London Theatre". He also wrote "Gervase Markham, Dramatist", "New Shakespeare Discoveries", "Shakspere's Money Interest in the Globe Theatre", "Shakspere and the Blackfriars", "The Swan Theatre and the Earl of Pembroke's Servants", and a series of important articles in the London Times, September 12, 1906 (letter), October 2 and 4, 1909, March 28, 1913, April 30 and May 1, 1914, and May 8 and 15, 1915. His discoveries were of undoubted value, but, since all were not published and since other scholars have now worked in his field, it is hard justly to estimate their importance. He was the finder of a new signature of Shakespeare and of much new material that threw light on the intricate history of the Tudor stage. He himself felt that because of this material the entire dramatic literature of the period needed reediting and the history of the drama rewriting. The zeal, industry, and the surprising success of the Wallace quests were unmistakable, but Wallace's absorption in his work seems to have destroyed his perspective, for he anticipated results disproportionate even to what he had already accomplished.
He married Hulda Alfreda (Berggren) Wallace of Wahoo, Neb. , on June 14, 1893.
