Gray C. Boyce
Gray Cowan Boyce (February 19, 1899 – May 14, 1981) was an American medieval historian and bibliographer best known for his five-volume Literature of Medieval History, 1930–1975: A Supplement to Louis John Paetow's A Guide to the Study of Medieval History (1981).
Born in San Francisco and raised in Alameda, California, Boyce studied at the University of California, Berkeley, earning a BA in 1920, an MA in 1921, and a PhD in 1925. He also studied at Harvard (1922–23), Grenoble (1925), and Ghent (1925–26). In 1926 he joined Princeton University's faculty, where he remained until 1946, aside from three years in the U.S. Naval Reserve during World War II. He then moved to Northwestern University, teaching there until his retirement in 1967.
Boyce’s work increasingly focused on bibliography and scholarly standards. He served on the editorial board of The American Historical Review. After retiring, he returned to Alameda with his sister Merle and completed his masterwork in 1981. In later life he suffered from Parkinson's disease and glaucoma. Boyce died on May 14, 1981. His papers are housed in the Northwestern University Library Archival and Manuscript Collections.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 05:25 (CET).