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

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

Articles

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

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