As the first Executive Managing Editor of the African American National Biography Project at the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard University, under the direction of Professors Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, I put together and trained an editorial team which first published African American Lives (Oxford UP, 2004), a collection of 611 biographies of people of note, followed by the eight-volume African American National Biography (Oxford UP, 2008). I am currently writing a book telling the stories of over 90 African Americans who, while traveling on buses, train, streetcars, steamboats, and stagecoaches, insisted on their equal rights from 1832 to the 1960s.
I hold a PhD in English from the University of Leeds, England, an MA in Medieval Welsh Language, Literature, and History from the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, and a BA in English from the University of Rochester, New York. I have written a number of well-received articles on The Mabinogi, the great medieval Welsh classic, and other works of early Welsh prose and poetry. I have published five volumes of translations of medieval Welsh prose and poetry in collaboration with Anthony Griffiths, a photographer, guitarist, and long-time friend from Aberystwyth, Wales, hundreds of whose stunning photographs have made these books remarkably beautiful.
I have taught at Harvard, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, Univ. of Massachusetts, Univ. of Connecticut, and Yale. I worked as a lexicographer for over 35 years, ten years with Merriam-Webster and then with other major publishers of English dictionaries, including Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Houghton Mifflin, Macmillan, and Scholastic. My Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names (Omnigraphics, 1993, 1998) was named Best Reference Book of 1993 by the Library Journal and an Outstanding Reference Source by the American Library Association.
I was born in the Hudson Valley and raised there and in Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia. During my undergraduate years I had the good fortune to join the third Selma to Montgomery March and to hear Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., deliver his famous “How Long?” speech. That experience alone has proved a formative influence on my personality, interests, and career, and it has spurred me to persist with my present book project – Protesting with Rosa Parks: From Stagecoaches to Driving While Black.
A Brief Resume
EDUCATION
Ph.D. University of Leeds. Medieval English Language and Literature.
M.A. University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. Medieval Welsh Language, Literature, and History.
B.A. University of Rochester. English.
EDITORIAL AND ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE
Harvard University, W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, Managing/Executive Editor, 2002-05, African American National Biography
Harvard University, 2017; Department of Celtic Language and Literature; Visiting Senior Lecturer
Oxford University Press, Dictionary Division; 2013, 1994-2001, Contributing editor.
Cambridge University Press, Dictionary Division; 2010-11, 1995-91, Contributing editor
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1978-99; Visiting Professor of English; Adjunct Professor of Comparative Literature
Smith College, 1988-93; Visiting Lecturer in English
Mount Holyoke College 1985-88; Assistant Professor of English
University of Connecticut, Storrs, 1985-86; Visiting Lecturer in English & Medieval Studies
Yale University, 1985; Silliman College Visiting Lecturer
Merriam-Webster, Inc., Springfield, Mass., 1973-1983; Assistant/Associate Editor
BOOKS
2025 Protesting with Rosa Parks: From Stagecoaches to Driving While Black. Athens: Univ. of Georgia Press, 2025.
2019 Cymru Dafydd ap Gwilym / Dafydd ap Gwilym’s Wales. Llanrwst: Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 2019.
2015 Englynion y Beddau: The Stanzas of the Graves. Llanrwst: Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 2015.
2013 Co-editor, Owain Glyndŵr: A Casebook. Liverpool, Liverpool Univ. Press, 2013.
2010 Tales of Arthur: Legend and Landscape of Wales. Llandysul: Gomer Press, 2010.
2008 Managing/Executive Editor, African American National Biography. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2008.
2007 Companion Tales to The Mabinogi: Legend and Landscape of Wales. Llandysul: Gomer Press, 2007.
2006 The Mabinogi: Legend and Landscape of Wales. Llandysul: Gomer Press, 2006.
2006 Scholastic Children’s Thesaurus. New York: Scholastic, 1998, 2006.
2004 Managing/Executive Editor, African American Lives. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2004.
2002 Scholastic Student Thesaurus. New York: Scholastic, 2002.
1998 Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names. Detroit: Omnigraphics, 1993, 1998.
AWARDS
2010 Welsh Books Council, Best Art/Photography Book of the Year: Tales of Arthur
2008 Choice, Outstanding Academic Title: African American National Biography (AANB)
Library Journal, Best Reference Work: AANB
Booklist, Editors’ Choice: AANB
1994 American Library Association, Outstanding Reference Source: Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names
Library Journal, Best Reference Book of 1993: Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names
ARTICLES AND OTHER PUBLICATIONS (Selected)
2022 “Thomas Jinnings: The First Black Student at Harvard?” The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, online, forthcoming.
2019 “The Early Myrddin Poetry” in Arthur in the Celtic Languages, C. Lloyd-Morgan and E. Poppe, edd. Cardiff: UWP, 2019.
2019 Two poems by Iolo Goch in The Battle of Crecy: A Casebook, Michael Livingston and Kelly DeVries, edd. Liverpool: LUP, 2015.
2013 “Meuyl ar uy Maryf: Shame and Honour in The Mabinogi.” Studia Celtica 47 (2013), 123-47.
2013 Twenty-one items in Owain Glyndŵr: A Casebook, M. Livingston and J. Bollard, edd. Liverpool: LUP, 2013.
2013 “Arthur in the Early Welsh Tradition.” The Romance of Arthur. NY: Garland (3rd ed., 2013), 9-27.
2010 Eight items in The Battle of Brunanburh:A Casebook, Michael Livingston, ed. Exeter: EUP, 2010.
2009 “Landscapes of The Mabinogi.” Landscapes 10 (Autumn 2009), 37-60.
“What is a baryflen? – a speculation,” Studia Celtica 43 (November 2009), 213-20.
2007 “Glini / Gliui,” Studia Celtica (November 2007), 232-234.
2004 “Nine Hundred and Fifty Years of Poetry.” Review of Medieval Welsh Poetry, trans. Joseph Clancy. Planet 164, 100-102.
2000 “Theme and Meaning in Peredur.” Arthuriana, 10 (2000), 73-92.
LEXICOGRAPHIC EXPERIENCE (Selected)
OXFORD UNIV. PRESS:
2013 Contributing editor. Oxford American Children’s Thesaurus (2013)
1999-2001 Contributing editor. The New Oxford American Dictionary (2001)
1998-99 Pronunciation editor. Oxford Essential Biographical and Geographical Dictionaries (1999)
1994-95 Pronunciation editor. The Oxford Desk Dictionary (1995)
CAMBRIDGE UNIV. PRESS:
2010-11 Contributing editor. Cambridge English Business Dictionary (2011)
1995-99 Contributing editor. Cambridge Dictionary of American English (2000)
SCHOLASTIC PRESS:
1998-2002 Editor. The Scholastic Student Thesaurus (2002)
2006, 1996-97 Editor. The Scholastic Children’s Thesaurus (1998, 2006)
OMNIGRAPHICS:
1990-97 Editor. Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names (1993); Second edition (1998)
WEBSTER’S NEW WORLD:
1995 Consultant editor: Webster’s New World Thesaurus (1996)
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN CO.:
1984-92 Consulting editor. The American Heritage Dict. of the Eng. Lang., 3rd Ed. (1992), A. H. Intermediate Dict. (1986), A. H. School Dict. (1986), A.. H. Beginner's Dict. (1986).
MERRIAM WEBSTER INC.:
1973-83 Assistant/Associate Editor. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (Ninth ed.), et al.
PROFESSIONAL LECTURES AND PAPERS (Selected)
2018 Harvard Celtic Colloquium: “Gruffudd Gryg’s The Yew Tree over Dafydd ap Gwilym’s Grave.”
2014 Harvard Celtic Colloquium: “What is or are The Stanzas of the Graves?”
2013 Harvard Celtic Colloquium: “Shame in The Mabinogi.”
2012 National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth; “Owain Glyndŵr: A Casebook.”
2006 National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth: “Remarks on The Mabinogi.”
2005 Medieval Studies Conference, Kalamazoo: “Playing Beowulf: The Sutton Hoo hearpe and the Performance of Old English Poetry.”
2004 Harvard University, Department of English: “Reconstructing, Understanding, and Playing the Sutton Hoo Lyre.”
2002 N. American Assoc. for the Study of Welsh Culture and History Conference, Le Moyne: “The Creation of Owain Glyndŵr.”
2000 Welsh Society of Western New England: “Owain Glyndŵr and the Poets.”