Fredson Bowers


Fredson Thayer Bowers was an American bibliographer and scholar of textual editing.

Career

Bowers was a graduate of Brown University and Harvard University. He taught at Princeton University before moving to the University of Virginia in 1938.
Bowers was a cryptanalyst and served as a commander in the United States Navy during World War II leading a group of codebreakers.
In 1947 he led a group of faculty and interested local citizens in founding the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia, and served as president for many years. He founded its annual publication Studies in Bibliography, which became a leading journal in the field. He was succeeded by David L. Vander Meulen as editor in 1991.
He was Rosenbach Fellow in Bibliography in 1954 at the University of Pennsylvania.
He also was named to the Lyell Readership in Bibliography at Oxford University and the Sandars Readership in Bibliography at Cambridge University.
Bowers was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1958. In 1969 he was awarded the Gold Medal of The Bibliographical Society. He retired in 1975, retaining the title Linden Kent Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Virginia.

Personal life

Bowers had three sons and a daughter with his first wife: Fredson Bowers Jr., Stephen, Peter, and Joan.
His second wife, novelist Nancy Hale, died in 1988.

Works written or edited

  • The Dog Owner's Handbook Author.
  • Bowers, Fredson. 1940. Elizabethan Revenge Tragedy, 1587-1642. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  • The Fary Knight: or, Oberon the Second: a Manuscript Play Attributed to Thomas Randolph Editor.
  • Bowers, Fredson. 1946. “Notes on Standing Type in Elizabethan Printing.” The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 40 : 205–24.
  • "Criteria for Classifying Hand-Printed Books as Issues and Variant States" Author.
  • “Certain Basic Problems in Descriptive Bibliography.” The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 42 1948: 211–28.
  • Principles of Bibliographical Description Author.
  • George Sandys: a Bibliographical Catalogue of Printed Editions in England to 1700 Author, with Richard Beale Davis.
  • English Studies in Honor of James Southall Wilson Editor.
  • The Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker, vol. I. Editor.
  • On Editing Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Dramatists Author.
  • Whitman's Manuscripts: Leaves of Grass A Parallel Text Editor.
  • The Bibliographical Way Author.
  • Textual & Literary Criticism Author.
  • The Scarlet Letter Editor. Nathaniel Hawthorne, author.
  • The Merry Wives of Windsor Editor; William Shakespeare, author.
  • Bibliography and Textual Criticism Author.
  • Hamlet: an Outline-Guide to the Play Author.
  • The Blithedale Romance: and Fanshawe Editor; Nathaniel Hawthorne, author.
  • The House of the Seven Gables Editor; Nathaniel Hawthorne, author.
  • Bibliography; Papers Read at a Clark Library Seminar, May 7, 1966 Author, with Lyle H. Wright.
  • The Dramatic Works in the Beaumont and Fletcher Canon Editor.
  • On Editing Shakespeare. Author.
  • William Shakespeare: Hamlet Adapted by the staff of Barnes & Noble from an original work by Fredson Bowers.
  • John Dryden: Four Comedies Edited with Lester A. Beaurline.
  • John Dryden: Four Tragedies Edited with Lester A. Beaurline.
  • Two Lectures on Editing: Shakespeare and Hawthorne Author, with Charlton Hinman
  • Our Old Home: a Series of English Sketches Editor. Nathaniel Hawthorne, author.
  • A Wonder Book, and Tanglewood Tales Editor. Nathaniel Hawthorne, author.
  • The Red Badge of Courage : a Facsimile Edition of the Manuscript Editor. Stephen Crane, author.
  • The Complete Works of Christopher Marlowe Editor.
  • The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling Editor. Henry Fielding, author.
  • Essays in Bibliography, Text, and Editing Author, with a Foreword by Irby B. Cauthen, Jr. Charlottesville: Published for the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia by the University Press of Virginia, 1975. viii, 550 pp.
  • Pragmatism Editor. William James, author.
  • The Meaning of Truth Editor. William James, author.
  • Essays in Radical Empiricism Editor. William James, author.
  • Essays in philosophy Editor. William James, author.
  • Pragmatism, a new name for some old ways of thinking; The meaning of truth, a sequel to Pragmatism Editor. William James, author.
  • Some Problems of Philosophy Editor. William James, author.
  • The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy Editor. William James, author.
  • Introductions, Notes, and Commentaries to Texts in 'The Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker' Editor. Cyrus Hoy, author.
  • Lectures on literature Editor. Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov, author.
  • Lectures on Russian literature Editor. Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov, author.
  • The Principles of Psychology Editor. William James, author.
  • The Complete works of Christopher Marlowe Editor. Second edition.
  • Essays in religion and morality Editor. William James, author.
  • Leon Kroll: a spoken memoir Author, with Nancy Hale
  • Lectures on Don Quixote Editor. Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov, author.
  • Elizabethan dramatists Editor.
  • Jacobean and Caroline dramatists Editor.
  • Hamlet as minister and scourge and other studies in Shakespeare and Milton Author.