Charles Montgomery Skinner (1852-1907) was an American writer. His career in literature and journalism included editorship of the Brooklyn Eagle. His study of the paperas famed Walt Whitman appeared in the Atlantic Monthly in 1903. Skinner published collections of myths, legends and folklore found inside the United States and across the world. One of his best known works was Myths and Legends of Our Own Land (1896). He hoped that Americaas progress would transform the nationas few legends into few but great ones. He hoped to combine folklore conventions with New England transcendentalism to keep alive traditions endangered by the industrial age. Skinneras writings were wide ranging. His interests included the seasons, especially as they changed inside of industrializing cities. In order to improve the urban environment, he authored a guide to gardening and urban beautification; Little Gardens (1904). He was a playwright, authoring Villon: The Vagabond (1898), and also commented on turn-of-the-century Americaas turbulent economy in Workers and the Trusts and American Communes (1900). His other contributions to American literature included works of natural history such as With Feet to the Earth (1897) and Do-Nothing Days (1899).