William H. Pritchard Explained

Birth Name:	William Harrison Pritchard, Jr.
Education:	1953, A.B., Amherst College 1956, M.A., Harvard University 1960, Ph.D., Harvard University
Known For:	Teaching, literary criticism
Honorific Suffix:	Emeritus
Thesis Title:	The uses of nature; a study of Robert Frost's poetry
Thesis Year:	1960
Honorific Prefix:	Henry Clay Folger Professor

William H. Pritchard (born 1932) is an American literary critic and the Henry Clay Folger Professor of English, Emeritus, at Amherst College.

Early life and education

William Harrison Pritchard, Jr., was born in 1932, the son of William H. Pritchard and Marion (LaGrange) Pritchard of Johnson City, New York.^[1] A graduate of Johnson City High School at age 16,^[2] he earned an A.B. in philosophy at Amherst College in 1953, and an M.A. (1956) and a Ph.D. in English (1960) at Harvard University,^[3] with the dissertation, The uses of nature; a study of Robert Frost's poetry.^[4]

Pritchard and Marietta Perl wed in August, 1957, in the Harvard University Chapel.^[5]

Career

Pritchard began teaching at Amherst in 1958. His academic interests include American and British 20th century fiction, poetry and literary criticism.^[6]

Selected publications

Books

Book: Pritchard, William H. . On Poets and Poetry . Swallow Press . June 23, 2009 . 978-0804011150.
Book: Pritchard, William H. . Shelf Life: Literary Essays and Reviews . University of Massachusetts Press . 2003 . 978-1558493759. ^[7]
Book: Pritchard, William H. . Updike: America's Man of Letters . Steerforth Pres . 2000 . 978-1586420024. ^[8]
Book: Pritchard, William H. . Lives of the Modern Poets . University Press of New England . 1997 . 978-0874517873. ^[9]
Book: Pritchard, William H. . English Papers: A Teaching Life . Graywolf Press . 1995 . 978-1555972349. ^[10]
Book: Pritchard, William H. . Randall Jarrell: A Literary Life . Farrar, Straus and Giroux . 1990 . 978-0374246778. ^[11]
Book: Pritchard, William H. . Frost: A Literary Life Reconsidered . Oxford University Press . 1984 . 978-0195034622.
Book: Gottesman . R. . Holland . L. B. . Kalstone . D. . Murphy . F . Parker . H. . Pritchard . W. H. . The Norton anthology of American literature . WW Norton & Company, Inc., New York . 1980 . 0-393-95119-7 . New York.

Articles

News: Pritchard . William H. . 1985-12-22 . John Ashbery and the Shock of the New . The Washington Post . 2022-05-10 . 0190-8286.
Pritchard . William H. . 1995 . Salwak . Dale . Moseley . Merritt . Fussell . Paul . Appreciating Kingsley Amis . The Hudson Review . 48 . 1 . 137–144 . 10.2307/3852071 . 3852071 . 0018-702X.
Pritchard . William H. . 2003 . Hitchens . Christopher . Orwell . George . Carey . John . Orwell Matters . The Hudson Review . 56 . 1 . 183–190 . 10.2307/3852935 . 3852935 . 0018-702X.
Pritchard . William H. . 1975 . Larkin . Philip . Larkin Lives . The Hudson Review . 28 . 2 . 302–308 . 10.2307/3850193 . 3850193 . 0018-702X.
Pritchard . William H. . 2009 . Huxley . Aldous . Sexton . James . Dee . Ivan R. . Huxley in His Letters . The Sewanee Review . 117 . 1 . 121–125 . 40211698 . 0037-3052.
Pritchard . William H. . 1976 . The Grip of Frost . The Hudson Review . 29 . 2 . 185–204 . 10.2307/3849927 . 3849927 . 0018-702X.
Pritchard . William H. . 1968 . Dickey . James . Schorer . Mark . Why Read Criticism? . The Hudson Review . 21 . 3 . 585–592 . 10.2307/3849505 . 3849505 . 0018-702X.
Pritchard . William H. . 2008 . Bishop's Time . The Hudson Review . 61 . 2 . 321–334 . 20464863 . 0018-702X.
Pritchard . William H. . 1995 . Eliot . T. S. . Schuchard . Ronald . A Mind So Fine . The American Scholar . 64 . 3 . 452–456 . 41212358 . 0003-0937.
Pritchard . William H. . 1994 . Reading Hawthorne . The Hudson Review . 46 . 4 . 757–764 . 10.2307/3852140 . 3852140 . 0018-702X.

Awards, honors

National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship (1977-78, 1986)
Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship (1973-1974)^[12]
American Council of Learned Societies Junior Fellowship (1963-64); Fellowship (1977-78)
Henry Clay Folger Professor of English (1984)

Scholarly and Professional Activities

American Academy of Arts & Sciences (elected 2004)^[13]
Association of Literary Scholars and Critics

External links

David Sofield and William H. Pritchard (mp3 audio, 32:08)
Friends of the Library Oral Histories: William Pritchard Interviewed by Rand R. Cooper (August 15, 2002)(video, 1:55:31)
Bill Pritchard, Amherst at 200: Celebrating Mind, Heart, and Community
A tribute to John Updike (video, 1:02:06; Pritchard's speech from 47:47–55:02)
Remembering John Updike

Notes and References

News: 1959-11-25 . William H. Pritchard Dead at 56; EJ Official, JC School Board Head . 35 . Press and Sun-Bulletin . 2022-04-10.
Web site: Amherst at 200, Celebrating Mind, Heart, and Community: Bill Pritchard . 2022-04-10. Transcript
Web site: Pritchard, William H. Faculty & Staff Amherst College . 2022-04-10 . www.amherst.edu.
Web site: Pritchard . William Harrison . 1960 . The uses of nature; a study of Robert Frost's poetry . 2022-05-05 . hollis.harvard.edu . en.
News: August 24, 1957 . Marietta Perl a Bride; Married in Harvard Chapel to William H. Pritchard Jr. . . 2022-05-04 . Times Machine.
Web site: Peter Pouncey Friends of the Library Oral Histories Amherst College . 2022-04-10 . www.amherst.edu.
Review:News: Ciolkowski . Laura . 2003-07-27 . Books in Brief: Nonfiction . en-US . The New York Times . 2022-05-08 . 0362-4331.
Review:News: Wilson . Jonathan . 2000-09-24 . Iron John . en-US . The New York Times . 2022-05-08 . 0362-4331.
Review: News: Leonard . John . Books of The Times: Lives of the Modern Poets . The New York Times . en . C23 . 2022-05-04 . timesmachine.nytimes.com.
Review:News: Harshaw . Tobin . 1996-01-07 . Books in Brief: Nonfiction . en-US . The New York Times . 2022-05-08 . 0362-4331.
Review:News: Broyard . Anatole . 1990-05-06 . 'Wittier than Anybody' . en-US . The New York Times . 2022-05-08 . 0362-4331.
Web site: William H. Pritchard . 2022-04-07 . John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation . en-US.
Web site: William H. Pritchard . 2022-04-07 . American Academy of Arts & Sciences . en.