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

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

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 Lasell University (LU) is a private university in Auburndale, Massachusetts. Lasell offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in the liberal arts, sciences, and professional fields of study. History Lasell was founded in 1851 as the Auburnda ...

Auburndale, Massachusetts Auburndale is one of the thirteen villages within the city of Newton in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It lies at the western end of Newton near the intersection of interstate highways 90 and 95. It is bisected by the Massachus ...

. His father was a trustee of

Tufts College Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

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. His work was initially published in England before it was published in the United States. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloq ...

. 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 i ...

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, novelist, and short story writer. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for two of her published collections, ''The ...

and

Anne Sexton Anne Sexton (born Anne Gray Harvey; November 9, 1928 – October 4, 1974) was an American poet known for her highly personal, confessional verse. She won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1967 for her book '' Live or Die''. Her poetry details ...

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

University of Hawaii A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

's quarterly magazine ''

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

'' 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 Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Word ...

", "

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...

", "The Age of

Johnson Johnson is a surname of Anglo-Norman origin meaning "Son of John". It is the second most common in the United States and 154th most common in the world. As a common family name in Scotland, Johnson is occasionally a variation of ''Johnston'', a ...

", "The Age of

Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

" 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 ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, 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

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References

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