William Malone Baskervill (1850–1899) was a writer and professor of the English language and literature at Vanderbilt University.
[1] As a result, he attended the University of Leipzig in 1873–1874, where he became friends with Charles Forster Smith.
Together with Smith, who also taught at Vanderbilt, and George Washington Cable, he ran an organization known as the Open Letter Club.
[2] Essie Samuels notes this was "a loosely organized attempt to disseminate liberal propaganda concerning civil rights and education for the Negro in the South between 1887 and 1890.
"[3] He was the son-in-law of Methodist Bishop and Vanderbilt University co-founder Holland Nimmons McTyeire.