George Bosworth Churchill (AC 1889) Papers

George Bosworth Churchill was born on October 24, 1866, in Worcester, Mass., the son of Ezra and Myra J. Bosworth Churchill. He prepared for college at Worcester High School and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Amherst in 1889. After college he spent three years teaching at Worcester High School. He then went to the William Penn Charter School for two years as master of oral and written expression. During 1893 and 1894, he attended graduate school at University of Pennsylvania, before studying for three years in Germany. There he received his A.M. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Berlin. Returning to America, he was the assistant editor of Cosmopolitan Magazine until 1898, when he was appointed associate professor of English and public speaking at Amherst College. In 1903, he became associate professor of English literature. In 1905, he was promoted to professor of English literature, a position he held until the time of his death. He died on July 1, 1925, of heart failure, in Amherst, Mass.

Besides his professional duties, he was a noted author. He wrote the Descriptive Catalogue of the Latin University Plays of England in the Time of Elizabeth in collaboration with Prof. Wolfgang Keller in 1898, and Richard III Up to Shakespeare in 1900. He edited two of William Wycherley's plays, "The Country Wife," and "The Plain Dealer," in 1923, and Shakespeare's "Richard III" in 1912.

He had a political career as well. In 1917, he was elected State Senator of his district, and was re-elected in 1918 and 1919. He was a delegate to the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention those same years. For eight years, he chaired the Amherst Republican Town Committee. For more than twenty years, he moderated Amherst town meetings.