C. O. Sylvester Mawson - Roget's Thesaurus Editor

[mahees]

Hi all,

   I've just discovered that author Christopher Orlando Sylvester Mawson (C. O. Sylvester Mawson) who wrote 'The Dictionary of Foreign Terms' among others, is distantly related to my husband. Not much of a claim to fame, I know, but the best I've found in my tree 

Mawson was born in Richmond, Yorshire in 1870 and I have him up until the 1891 census, and I have found an 1892 marriage for him in Dartford, but I lose him after that.

I was wondering if anyone knows where I can find out more about his life; I've tried wikipedia and there appears to be no reference to him there (so not that famous then!). Does anyone know where I might find a bio on him, or something like that?

Thanks in anticipation
Erin 

[stanmapstone]

Apparently he died in 1938.

Stan

[mahees]

Hi Stan,
    Do you know where? I can't see him in the death indexes at a glance.
Thanks
Erin 

[stanmapstone]

Hi Erin,
From Google Book Search (Snippet View)

Twentieth Century Authors: A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Literature - Page 939
by Stanley Kunitz, Howard Haycraft - Biography & Autobiography - 1973
 MAWSON, CHRISTOPHER ORLANDO SYLVESTER (1870-November 4, 1938), ...

There is no sign of him in the Death Indexes

Stan

[mahees]

hmmm....
Maybe he emigrated. 
Can't find anything on findmypast though. Apart from an O S Mawson to South Africa in 1898. Doesn't sound that likely though. You'd think there'd be some info on him somewhere 

[EditorMark]

I came here after having purchased a copy of "The Dictionary Companion" and Googling the author. I came across a New York Times obituary from 1938 (Saturday, Nov. 5, page 19):

C. O. SYLVESTER MAWSON
BOSTON, Nov. 4 (AP) — C.O. Sylvestor Mawson, well-known lexicographer, suffered a heart attack tonight while motoring with his wife and died just after he brought his car to a stop. His age was 66.

[DianaCanada]

There are a few references to him in The British Newspaper Archive, but I can see nothing about his death.

[jorose]

1930 census suggests he came over in 1908
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XQ5W-5FC?lang=en

1910 shows a sister, but no children:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M5SC-1WB?lang=en
 (indexing is wrong; original shows born England)
His sister passed away in 1916: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9RTB-9HKD?view=fullText&keywords=Mawson%2CS%2CO&lang=en&groupId=

This may be him in transit to India in 1908
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV9W-166H?lang=en