City Readers Digital Historic Collections at the New York Society Library

William Austin (March 2, 1778 – June 27, 1841) was an American author and lawyer, most notable as the creator of the Peter Rugg stories published in the New England Galaxy in 1824–1827. Austin's stories, constructed as long letters signed with the name Jonathan Dunwell, presented the Rugg story as a long-standing New England legend, about a strong and obstinate man who got lost in a thunderstorm in 1770 and wandered the roads ever afterwards.