Kenneth George Wilson (1923–2003) was an author, professor of English and vice president at the
University of Connecticut. His best-known work is
The Columbia Guide to Standard American English, published in 1993.
Through the 1970s Wilson served as UConn's vice president for academic programs or academic affairs. With the 1974 change in title, the vice presidency replaced the provost as the university's chief academic office. He had been dean of the university's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences from 1966 to 1970 and head of the English department in 1965-66.
"Many of his contemporaries credit Wilson with starting the process of making UConn a nationally respected university," a university press release and the university magazine, Advance, said at the time of his death in 2003.
Wilson returned to teaching in 1981 and retired in 1989. He had joined UConn's Storrs campus faculty in 1951 as an instructor and rose to be a full professor. A graduate of
Albion College in Albion, Mich., Wilson earned his master's and doctoral degrees from the
University of Michigan. He was a native of
Akron,
Ohio.
He is the subject of an article in
Contemporary Authors (December 2007) by
Thomson Gale.
When the Columbia Guide was published online by
Bartleby.com in 2001, the site said of Wilson's book: "A vigorous assessment of how our language is best written and spoken and how we can use it most effectively, this guide is the ideal handbook of language etiquette: friendly, sensible, reliable, and fun to read."
The electronic edition continues to be offered through licenses to libraries and other institutions.
The Guide has 6,500 entries, including both descriptive and prescriptive examples. The electronic edition features 4,300 hyperlinked cross-references.
In the book's introduction, Wilson called standard American English usage "linguistic good manners, sensitively and accurately matched to context — to listeners or readers, to situation, and to purpose."
Bibliography
- Harbrace guide to dictionaries (1963)
- The Play of Language: A Revision of Essays on Language and Usage (January 1971, September 1971, ISBN 0195013042) with Leonard Fellows Dean, and W. Walker Gibson
- Van Winkle's Return: Change in American English, 1966-1986 (June 1987, ISBN 0874514118)
- The Columbia Guide to Standard American English (1993, May 1999, ISBN 1567312675), from 2001 to June 2009 available for free online at Bartleby.com
As Editor:
- Models in Plant Physiology and Biochemistry by David W. Newman, Ph.D. (October 1987, ISBN 0849343429)
Category:1923 birthsCategory:2003 deathsCategory:Linguistics writers
