Dixon Wecter

Dixon Wecter
Born	January 12, 1906 Houston, Texas, U.S.
Died	June 24, 1950(1950-06-24) (aged 44) Sacramento, California, U.S.
Education	Baylor University Yale University
Occupation	Historian
Spouse	Elizabeth Farrar

Dixon Wecter (January 12, 1906 – June 24, 1950) was an American historian. He was "the first professor of American History" at the University of Sydney, and the Margaret Byrne Professor of United States History at the University of California, Berkeley. He was the author of more than three books.

Early life

Wecter was born on January 12, 1906, in Houston, Texas, the son of Eugenia (née Dixon) and John Joseph Wecter. He graduated from Baylor University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1925. He earned a master's degree from Yale University in 1926, attended the University of Oxford's Merton College as a Rhodes Scholar between 1928 and 1930, and he earned a PhD from Yale University in 1936.

Career

Wecter joined the English faculty at the University of Colorado Boulder in 1936, and he became a tenured associate professor in 1936. He was an English professor at the University of California, Los Angeles from 1939 to 1945. During those years, he was also a research fellow at the Huntington Library in 1939-1940, and a Guggenheim Fellow in 1942-1943.

Wecter became "the first professor of American history" at the University of Sydney in 1945. He was finally appointed as the Margaret Byrne Professor of United States History at the University of California, Berkeley in 1949-1950.

Wecter succeeded Bernard DeVoto as Editor of the Mark Twain Literary Estate.

Wecter was the author of more than three books, including one about Edmund Burke.

Personal life and death

Wecter married Elizabeth Farrar in 1937.

Wecter died on June 23, 1950, in Sacramento, California.

Selected works

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