John McWilliams Jr.

John McWilliams died July 23, 2023. The Julian W. Abernathy Professor of American Literature, Emeritus, at Middlebury College, McWilliams was an eminent scholar of early American literature. His books include Political Justice in a Republic: James Fenimore Cooper’s America (1972), Hawthorne, Melville, and the American Character: A Looking-Glass Business (1985), The American Epic: Transforming a Genre, 1770-1860 (1989), and New England’s Crises and Cultural Memory: Literature, Politics, History, Religion, 1620-1860 (2004). Among his many fellowships and grants, he received four National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships.