The Cambridge Companion to English Literature, 1650-1740

James Anderson Winn was born in Charlotte, North Carolina on July 31, 1947. He started playing flute in the sixth grade and was able to study with Francis Fuge, the principal flutist of the Louisville Symphony, in the 1960s. Winn received a bachelor's degree in English from Princeton University in 1968. He then spent two years in the Army, playing flute in the Continental Army Band. He received a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1974. He taught at Yale from 1974 to 1983, the University of Michigan from 1983 to 1998, and Boston University from 1998 until 2017. His first book, A Window in the Bosom, was published in 1977. His other books included John Dryden and His World, The Pale of Words, The Poetry of War, and Queen Anne: Patroness of Arts. He also played the flute with orchestras or small ensembles. He died from pancreatic cancer on March 21, 2019 at the age of 71.