Walter Dyer, a prolific author, was a member of the Amherst College Class of 1900. From 1900 to 1901 he was on the staff of The Springfield Union and The Criterion (New York), and from 1901 to 1905, he was on the editorial staff of Clifford and Lawton, publishers of trade journals in New York. From 1905 to 1914 he worked on the staff of the magazine Country Life in America, serving as editor from 1907 to 1914. From 1914 until his death in 1943, he was an independent author, publishing many books and magazine articles on antiques, animals (particularly dogs), country life, and short fiction. He was editor of The Amherst Graduates' Quarterly for more than ten years (from 1932 to 1943) and became the director of Amherst College Press in 1933. In 1903 Dyer married Ethelind Thorp Childs, who died in 1904. In 1907 he married her sister Muriel Worthington Childs. Dyer died in Pelham, Mass. on June 20, 1943.

Dyer was the author of the following books: