Randel, William Peirce, 1909-....

Historian and professor of English, University of Maine.

William Peirce Randel, a professor of English at the University of Maine, was born on January 7, 1909, in New York City, the son of William A. and Mabel Peirce Randel. He received a bachelor's degree from Columbia University, a master's from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. from Columbia. He taught English at universities in Minnesota, Missouri, Wyoming and Florida as well as abroad before coming to Maine. He was the author of numerous books and articles and lectured widely. William Randel married Janet Hosmer Belknap in 1931; they were residents of Waterboro, Maine. William Randel died in 1996.

William Peirce Randel (1909- ) was a professor of English who, later in his career, engaged in full-time writing. Randel was a Professor of English Emeritus for the University of Maine and was also a professor of English and director of American Studies at Florida State University. Randel was an Edward Eggleston Scholar who studied with Ralph Leslie Rusk and Lionel Trilling in the 1940's. He was the author of notable books about history, which include The Ku-Klux-Klan: a century of infamy, The evolution of American taste, The American revolution: mirror of a people, and a biography of Edward Eggleston. Before his death, Randel was working on a biographical book on the life of Samuel Brannan, Mormon, gold miner and journalist.