Wing, Donald Goddard, 1904-1972

Donald Goddard Wing was born in Athol, Massachusetts in 1904 and attended public schools there. He graduated from Yale University in 1926 and received a master's degree in English from Harvard University in 1928. In that year, he joined the Yale University Library as an assistant reference librarian, and participated in the move of the Yale collections to the new Sterling Memorial Library. Wing spent his entire career at Yale as a librarian and bibliographer, retiring as Associate Librarian for Collections in 1970. He received his Ph.D. from Yale in 1932, was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for his bibliographical research in 1935, and was the first Yale librarian to be awarded a research sabbatical, in 1967-68.

Wing is best known for his multi-volume A Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and British America and of English Books Printed in Other Countries, 1641-1700 (Wing), first published in 1945-51 and revised and enlarged in subsequent decades. While the work has been criticized, particularly for Wing's decision to alter entry numbers in the later editions, it has become the standard bibliography in its field. In 1967 Wing published A Gallery of Ghosts: Books Published Between 1641-1700 Not Found in the Short-Title Catalogue, listing more than five thousand titles Wing had found in biliographies, booksellers' lists, or auction catalogues but had been unable to verify.

Donald Wing married Charlotte Farquhar in 1930 and the couple had two children, Robert and Cathy. He died at his home in Woodbridge, Connecticut on October 8, 1972.

From the guide to the Donald Wing papers, 1936-1972, (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library)