Donald James Winslow (1911 – 10 July 2010) was a professor at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

who specialized in the subject of biography.

Life

Donald James Winslow was born in 1911, the third of four children of Guy Winslow, president of Lasell Junior College in

Auburndale, Massachusetts Auburndale is one of the thirteen List of villages in Newton, Massachusetts, villages within the city of Newton, Massachusetts, Newton in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It lies at the western end ...

. His father was a trustee of

Tufts College Tufts University is a Private university, private research university in Medford, Massachusetts, Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, with additional facilities in Boston and Grafton, Massachusetts, Grafton, as well as Talloire ...

and a friend of John Cousens, who would become president of Tufts. During his childhood, he met guests who spoke at Lasell such as the poet

Robert Frost Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American Colloquialism, colloquial speech, Frost frequently wrote about settings from rural life in New E ...

. He graduated from Newton High School in 1929, and was admitted to Tufts, earning a BA in English in 1934 and an MA in English in 1935. He began teaching in the

department of English in 1936, first as a teaching fellow and then as an instructor. He earned a PhD from the university in 1942, and then joined US Army Air Corps Weather Service, serving there until 1946. Returning to Boston University, Winslow rejoined the English Department, becoming a full Professor in 1953. He chaired the English department at Boston University from 1952 to 1962. Winslow hired the poet

Robert Lowell Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV (; March 1, 1917 – September 12, 1977) was an American poet. He was born into a Boston Brahmin family that could trace its origins back to the ''Mayflower''. His family, past and present, were important subjects ...

as a teacher in the English department, and Lowell in turn taught the poets

Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath (; October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet and author. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for '' The Colossus and Other Poems'' (1960), '' Ariel'' (1965), a ...

and Anne Sexton. Winslow was drawn to the subject of biography, becoming the bibliographer of the

University of Hawaii A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

's quarterly magazine ''

Biography A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curri ...

'' and giving one of the first university courses on the subject of biography. He also taught courses on "

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Literary realism, Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry ...

", "

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer and one of the most influential 20th-century modernist authors. She helped to pioneer the use of stream of consciousness narration as a literary device. Vir ...

", "The Age of

Johnson Johnson may refer to: People and fictional characters *Johnson (surname), a common surname in English * Johnson (given name), a list of people * List of people with surname Johnson, including fictional characters *Johnson (composer) (1953–2011) ...

", "The Age of

Pope The pope is the bishop of Rome and the Head of the Church#Catholic Church, visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the po ...

" and "Literature of the Eighteenth Century". Winslow retired from the university in 1977. He died of heart failure on 10 July 2010 at the age of 98. The archives of Lasell College are named after Winslow, who gathered and established the collection.

Work

Winslow wrote his master's thesis and doctoral dissertation on the British writer Thomas Hardy. In 1938, he took a bicycle tour of

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, where he met Hardy's sister Kate. Later he wrote a monograph about Kate Hardy. After retiring from the university, in 1987 he published a book ''Lasell: A History of the First Junior College for Women''. He also published a Glossary of Terms on Life Writing.

Bibliography

* * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Winslow, Donald James 1911 births 2010 deaths Boston University faculty