Louis Booker Wright

Background

Wright, Louis Booker was born on March 1, 1899 in Greenwood County, South Carolina, United States. Son of Thomas Fleming and Lena (Booker) Wright.

Education

1 son, Louis Christopher. Bachelor of Arts, Wofford College, Spartanburg, South Carolina., 1920. Master of Arts, U. North Carolina, 1924, Doctor of Philosophy, 1926, Doctor of Humane Letters, 1950.

Doctor of Letters, Wofford College, 1941, Mills College, 1947, Princeton University, 1948, Amherst College, 1948, Occidental College, 1949, Bucknell University, 1951, Franklin and Marshall College, 1957, Colby College, 1959, U. British Columbia, 1960, U. Birmingham, England, 1964, U. Leicester, England, 1965.

Doctor of Laws, Tulane University, 1950, George Washington University, 1958, U. Chattanooga, 1959, U. Akron, 1961, Saint Andrews University, Scotland, 1961, Washington and Lee University, 1964, Mercer University, 1965, Winthrop College, 1980. Doctor of Humane Letters, Northwestern University, 1948, Yale University, 1954, Rockford College, 1956, Coe College, 1959, Georgetown University, 1961, California State College, Fullerton, 1966, University of California at Los Angeles, 1967, Brown University, 1968, University of Southern California, 1972, Lander College, 1974.

Career

Wright was the director of the Folger Shakespeare Library, the author of numerous books about the American colonial period, and in 1928 he was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship. He was subsequently stationed at Plattsburgh, New York, for six months during World War I. He did not return directly to Wofford after the war, but spent several months as an airmail pilot before resuming his studies. In 1923, he became an English teaching assistant at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he wrote his Master"s thesis in 1924.

In 1926, he received his Doctor of Philosophy from Chapel Hill and became an Assistant Professor of English there.

Louis and Francis moved to London in 1928 upon his reception of a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1931, joined the staff of the Huntington Library as an administrator and scholar.

Much of his research at the Huntington was concerned with the English Renaissance and the colonial period of the United States. While at the Huntington, he also served as a visiting professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, the California Institute of Technology, and Pomona College.

Before his appointment as director of the Folger Shakespeare Library in 1947, Wright was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters by Princeton University.

He officially began working for the Folger in the summer of 1948. While director, Wright used administrative insight gained at the Huntington to initiate more modern and efficient practices at the Folger, adding reference works and improving lighting in the main research room. During his time as director, the Folger also adopted the Library of Congress" classification system.

With Virginia LaMar, the Folger"s executive secretary, Wright edited an early series of Folger Shakespeare Library editions of Shakespeare"s plays, drawing on Folio and Quarto editions of the plays and compiling notes to make the plays as accessible as possible to the casual reader.

The editions were published in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Among the organizations Wright served after his retirement in 1968 were the National Geographic Society, the Modern Language Association, and the Harry South. Truman Institute for National and International Affairs.

Wright died in 1984 of cardiovascular disease in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

Achievements

• Louis Booker Wright has been listed as a noteworthy historian, library director by Marquis Who's Who.

Membership

Member faculties U. North Carolina, Johns Hopkins University, Emory University, California Institute Technology, University of California at Los Angeles, U. Washington, University of Minnesota, Pomona College, Indiana University, 1926-1948. Member research staff Huntington Library, 1932-1948. Member of advisory board John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, 1942-1971, Chairman of the Board, 1950-1971.

Served in the United States Army, World War I. Fellow Royal Society Literature, Royal Society Arts, Royal History Society.

Member American History Association (executive secretary 1964-1965), Massachusetts History Society, American Philosophical Society (vice president 1974-1978), American Antiquarian Society, American Academy Arts and Sciences, Modern Humanities Research Association, American Association Learned Societies

(director 1971-1977), Phi Beta Kappa (senator, Distinguished Service award 1976), several other professional associations. Clubs: Tudor and Stuart (Johns Hopkins).

Connections

Married Frances Marion Black, June 10, 1925.

Father:

Thomas Fleming Wright

Mother:

Lena (Booker) Wright

Spouse:

Frances Marion Black