Link, Arthur Stanley

Arthur Stanley Link was an author, editor, scholar and publisher, but is best known as the leading historian on Woodrow Wilson and for his leadership over the publication of Wilson's papers. Link was born to John William and Helen Link in New Market, Virginia on August 8, 1920. He received his B.A. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 1941 and taught at North Carolina State College from 1943-1944. From 1944-1945 he was a Rosenwald Fellow at Columbia; he received his doctorate from UNC in 1945. In 1945 Link became an instructor in history Princeton; in 1949 he joined the faculty at Northwestern and became a full professor in 1954. Link was the Harmsworth Professor of American History at Oxford from 1958-1959, having received an M.A. from Oxford in 1958. In 1958 the Woodrow Wilson Foundation invited Link to be director of The Papers of Woodrow Wilson Project, and he returned to Princeton as the chief editor of the project and a professor of History in 1960. At Princeton, Link led the 69 volumes of the Papers project from its inception through completion in 1994 and was also the Edwards Professor of American History from 1965-1976 and the George Henry Davis Professor of American History from 1976-1991. Link retired from the History Department as Professor Emeritus in 1991. Along with his editorship of the Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Link published more than 30 books, including a five-volume biography of Wilson, as well as numerous articles and reviews. He held both Guggenheim and Rockefeller fellowships, was a member of Institute for Advanced Study, and was president of Southern Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, and the American Historical Association. Additionally, Link was the main organizer and first president of the Association for Documentary Editing. He also served as Vice President of the National Council of Churches. Link married Margaret McDowell Douglas on June 2, 1945; they had 4 children. Link died on March 26, 1998 in Bermuda Village, North Carolina.

Historian, writer.