Charles Welsh was born in Ramsgate, Kent, England on December 22, 1850, to Charles and Susannah Welsh. After attending national schools in Ashford, Kent, Welsh trained as a blacksmith in addition to receiving certificates in arithmetic, English literature and French. In 1868, Welsh went to work for as a reporter, using his knowledge of mechanics to write about new agricultural machinery. A publishing career soon followed with positions at Henry S. Ring & Co., (1870), and the Griffith Farran Co., (1877), where Welsh would eventually become a partner in 1884.

Welsh later moved to the United States, and in 1895 began work as the business manager and assistant editor at magazine. Welsh was soon considered a specialist of juvenile literature for the publication and in the years to follow he wrote and published many English and Irish themed works aimed at the young adult audience.

Because of Welsh's literary reputation and close connections in England and Ireland, he was able to assume the position of managing editor for a project at the publishing house of John D. Morris & Co. (Philadelphia) for the creation of an Irish literature anthology.

The anthology (10 vols.) was first published in 1904 by John D. Morris & Co.. As this was a collabrative work, the chief editor was Justin McCarthy (1830-1912). McCarthy, an Irish Nationalist who fought for Irish independence as a liberal home rule representative in the English House of Commons, was a well known noted author in his own right. Contributing editors to the anthology also included Maurice F. Egan, Douglas Hyde, Lady Gregory, James Jeffrey Roche, and Welsh, who became the managing editor for the anthology.

The anthology consists of over three hundred and fifty Irish authors, selected from both ancient and modern times. These literary works provide insight into both the literary and social development of the Irish people over the course of Irish history. Works of mythology, fable, fiction, history, oratory, science, memoirs, essays, drama, and poetry, were included in the anthology.

Welsh's interest in Irish culture and society are further expressed in the news clippings and articles he accumulated, which directly relate to Irish literary, social, and political movements of the time. These pieces, as well as supplemental materials that detail the editing and publication process of Irish Literature, were discovered within Welsh's personal copy of the anthology. Welsh eventually became an English professor at the University of Notre Dame. He died on September 14, 1914.