Roy Temple House, a native of Nebraska, received his degrees from Miami University, the University of Michigan, and France’s University of Montpillier. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1917 and taught in secondary schools before coming to the Southwestern State Normal School (now Southwestern Oklahoma State University) in Weatherford, Oklahoma, to serve as the head of the modern language department in 1905. He became a faculty member at the University of Oklahoma in 1911 and was the head of its modern language department by 1918. He became internationally known as editor of the University of Oklahoma Press’s quarterly publication Books Abroad in 1927.