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April 13, 1991, Page 001011 The New York Times Archives

Fredson Bowers, a specialist in manuscript editing and bibliography, died in his sleep on Thursday at his home in Charlottesville, Va. He was 85 years old.

The cause of death had not been determined yesterday, said a spokesman for Hill & Wood Funeral Home in Charlottesville.

Dr. Bowers, who was Linden Kent Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Virginia, was known internationally for his work in analyzing the physical features of books and applying his findings to literary criticism and the preparation of critical editions. In World War II, as a Navy commander, he headed a group that deciphered Japanese codes.

He edited more than 60 classical works spanning five centuries, with authors including Christopher Marlowe, John Dryden, Walt Whitman, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hart Crane, William James and Vladimir Nabokov. He was the author of 10 books, including "Textual and Literary Criticism" (1959) and "Bibliography and Textual Criticism" (1964).

At his death Dr. Bowers was completing a comprehensive bibliography of English drama from 1641 to 1700. He began the project nearly 50 years ago but had put it aside until recent years.

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Dr. Bowers was born in New Haven. He was a graduate of Brown University and held a doctorate from Harvard University. He taught at Princeton University before joining the faculty at Virginia in 1938. There, he became chairman of the English department in 1961 and served as dean of the faculty in 1968-69. He retired in 1975.

In 1948 Dr. Bowers founded the journal Studies in Bibliography, which he edited until his death. He was an avid collector of recordings, and from 1939 to 1966 he wrote more than 1,200 record reviews for The Richmond Times-Dispatch. He was a judge of show dogs, an activity that led to his first published work, "A Dog Owner's Handbook," in 1936.

Dr. Bowers's wife, the novelist Nancy Hale, died in 1988. He is survived by three sons, Fredson Jr., of Newton Highlands, Mass., Stephen, of Clifton Springs, N.Y., and Peter, of Freedom, Me., and a daughter, Joan Stout, of Miami.

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