Fredson Thayer Bowers (1905–1991) was an American bibliographer and scholar of textual editing.

Career

Bowers was a graduate of Brown University and Harvard University (Ph.D.). He taught at Princeton University before moving to the University of Virginia in 1938. Bowers was a cryptanalyst and served as a commander in the United States Navy during World War II leading a group of codebreakers. In 1947 he led a group of faculty and interested local citizens in founding the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia, and served as president for many years. He founded its annual publication Studies in Bibliography, which became a leading journal in the field. He was succeeded by David L. Vander Meulen as editor in 1991. He was Rosenbach Fellow in Bibliography in 1954 at the University of Pennsylvania. He also was named to the Lyell Readership in Bibliography at Oxford University and the Sandars Readership in Bibliography at Cambridge University. Bowers was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1958. In 1969 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Bibliographical Society of London. He retired in 1975, retaining the title Linden Kent Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Virginia.

Personal life

Bowers had three sons and a daughter with his first wife: Fredson Bowers Jr., Stephen, Peter, and Joan. His second wife, novelist Nancy Hale, died in 1988.

Works written or edited