William Howarth (November 26, 1940 – June 6, 2023) was an American writer and professor emeritus at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

. He published fourteen books and also wrote for such national periodicals as

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...

, Smithsonian,

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

, and

The American Scholar "The American Scholar" was a speech given by Ralph Waldo Emerson on August 31, 1837, to the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard College at the First Parish in Cambridge in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was invited to speak in recognition of his gr ...

. Howarth was born in Minneapolis and grew up in Springfield, Illinois, where his father Nelson Howarth was a progressive, civil-rights mayor. William Howarth received a B.A. from the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

at Champaign-Urbana and an M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

. Howarth taught at Princeton from 1966, offering over 60 undergraduate and graduate courses, from "Moby-Dick Unbound" to "Race and Place" and "Darwin in our Time." In 1968 he helped create Princeton's program in Afro-American studies. His teaching has spanned English, American Studies, Environmental Studies, the Center for the Study of Religion, the Davis Center for Historical Studies, and the Freshman Seminars. He advised 100 Ph.D. dissertations and 256 senior theses, and won numerous university awards for research, teaching, and alumni education. Howarth began his career as a specialist in American literary manuscripts and

textual criticism Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts or of printed books. Such texts may range in ...

, and in 1972 he became editor in chief of ''

The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau is a project that aims to provide, for the first time, accurate texts of the complete works of American author Henry David Thoreau, including his journal, personal letters, and writings for publication. Since the ...

''. In 1974-75 he served a
21st president
of the

Thoreau Society Founded in 1941, the Thoreau Society is the oldest and largest organization dedicated to an American author. It is based in Concord, Massachusetts, United States, at the house where Henry David Thoreau was born in 1817. With members from all 50 ...

. He published eight books on Thoreau, covering his studies of maps, landscapes, and North American travels. His account of Thoreau as writer, ''

The Book of Concord ''The Book of Concord'' (1580) or ''Concordia'' (often referred to as the ''Lutheran Confessions'') is the historic doctrinal standard of the Lutheran Church, consisting of ten credal documents recognized as authoritative in Lutheranism since t ...

'', is the first critical history of Thoreau's two-million-word ''Journal''. Howarth later expanded his studies in literary nonfiction to include the fields of autobiography, journalism, trans-Atlantic romanticism, and the literature of place and travel. His critical anthology, ''The John McPhee Reader'', is the first study of

John McPhee John Angus McPhee (born March 8, 1931) is an American writer. He is considered one of the pioneers of creative nonfiction. He is a four-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in the category General Nonfiction, and he won that award on the fourth ...

as literary artist, and it remains a standard text in journalism history. Howarth was a founding member of the

Princeton Environmental Institute Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...

and among the earliest scholars to define and explore the field of literary

ecocriticism Ecocriticism is the study of literature and ecology from an interdisciplinary point of view, where literature scholars analyze texts that illustrate environmental concerns and examine the various ways literature treats the subject of nature. It wa ...

. His essay "Some Principles of Ecocriticism" describes the origins and evolution of this field from early work in ecology, ethics, language, criticism, geography, natural and social sciences, history, literature, American studies, and media. He long served on the editorial boards of

Environmental History Environmental history is the study of human interaction with the natural world over time, emphasising the active role nature plays in influencing human affairs and vice versa. Environmental history first emerged in the United States out of th ...

Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment The Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE), also known as ASLE-USA, is the principal professional association for American and international scholars of ecocriticism and environmental humanities. It was founded in 1992 at a ...

, and was chairman of the board fo
The Center for American Places
His first venture into fiction, the historical novel ''Deep Creek'', written with

Anne Matthews Anne Matthews is a college lecturer and author of articles and books with environmental and academic themes. Her book, ''Where the Buffalo Roam: Restoring America's Great Plains'' was a 1993 Pulitzer Prize finalist in nonfiction. ''Deep Creek ...

under the joint pen nam
Dana Hand
was selected by the ''Washington Post'' as one of the best novels of 2010. Howarth died on June 6, 2023, at the age of 82.

References

External links

William Howarth home pagePrinceton Alumni Weekly: June 16, 2008Princeton University emeritus pageDana Hand home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Howarth, William 1940 births 2023 deaths American male writers Princeton University faculty Writers from Springfield, Illinois University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni University of Virginia alumni