William B. Willcox Explained

William B. Willcox
Birth Name:	William Bradford Willcox
Birth Date:	29 October 1907
Birth Place:	Ithaca, New York, U.S.
Death Place:	North Haven, Connecticut, U.S.
Occupation:	Professor of History

William Bradford Willcox (October 29, 1907 – September 15, 1985) was an American historian.

He was born in Ithaca, New York. He died in North Haven, Connecticut.

Education: He received his B.A. from Cornell University in 1928 and studied at Cambridge University. At Yale University he studied architecture (B.F.A., 1932), and Tudor-Stuart English history (Ph.D.,1936). Wallace Notestein directed his dissertation, which was recognized as a pioneer study of government in Gloucestershire. The work received the distinguished John Addison Porter Prize for best work of scholarship in a given year.^[1]

Academic, research, and administrative appointments: Assistant in Research (history), Yale University, 1934-1935. Instructor in history, Williams College, 1936-1941. Professor of history, University of Michigan, 1941-1970. Chair of the Department. A Member of the Institute for Advanced Studies, 1946. Fulbright lecturer at Oxford University, 1957-1958.^[2] Professor of History, Yale University, January 1970-June 1976. Visiting Lecturer, Yale College (Residential Colleges), 1978 2nd term-1979. Yale residential college fellow, Calhoun College, 1970-1979. Editor, Papers of Benjamin Franklin, January 1970 – 1985.^[3]

Awards

• 1936 John Addison Porter Prize, Yale University
• c.1938. 1900 Fund at Williams College for research on Gloucestershire.
• 1945. Henry Russel Award, University of Michigan, for his book, Star of Empire.
• 1965 Bancroft Prize for his Portrait of a General (the prize has been generally considered to be among the most prestigious awards in the field of American history writing).

Works

• Willcox, William B. Gloucestershire, a study in local government, 1590-1640. Yale University Press, 1940.
• Willcox, William B. Star of Empire - A Study of Britain as a World Power 1485-1945. Knopf, 1950.
• Clinton, Sir Henry. Sir Henry Clinton, The American rebellion: Sir Henry Clinton's narrative of his campaigns, 1775-1782, with an appendix of original documents. William B. Willcox, ed. Yale University Press, 1954.
• Willcox, William B. Portrait of a General. Sir Henry Clinton in the War for Independence. Knopf, 1964.
• William B. Willcox. The Age of Aristocracy 1688 to 1830. Houghton Mifflin, 1966.
• Franklin, Benjamin. The papers of Benjamin Franklin. Edited by William B. Willcox and others, Volumes 15-26. Yale University Press, 1972-1987.

Notes and References

1. Historical Register of Yale University, 1701-1937 (New Haven: Yale University, 1939), pp. 125-127.
2. Willcox, Portrait of a General. Author's profile on dust jacket.
3. Yale University Manuscripts & Archives, Historical Register Online 12/3/2013.