Douglas L. Wilson (born November 10, 1935) is the George A. Lawrence Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of English at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, where he taught from 1961 to 1994. He then was the founding director of the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at the Thomas Jefferson Foundation (Monticello) in Charlottesville, Virginia. In his retirement, he returned to Knox College to found and co-direct the Lincoln Studies Center with his colleague Rodney O. Davis.
Wilson is also a two-time winner of the Lincoln Prize for Lincoln's Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words, published in November 2006, as well as Honor's Voice in 1999.
Honors/grants
Order of Lincoln, Lincoln Academy, inducted Wilson a Laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded the *Order of Lincoln (the State's highest honor) by the Governor of Illinois in 2009 as a Bicentennial Laureate, 2009. Honorary Degree, D. H. L., Doane College, 2009. Book Prize for Lincoln's Sword, Abraham Lincoln Institute, 2007. Lincoln Prize for Lincoln's Sword, Gilder Lehrman Institute for American History, 2007. Honorary Degree, Litt. D., Knox College, 2007. Residency, Rockefeller Foundation Study Center at Bellagio, 2004. Lincoln Diploma of Honor, Lincoln Memorial University, 2000. Lincoln Prize for Honor's Voice, Gettysburg College, 1999. Barondess/Lincoln Award, Civil War Roundtable of New York, 1999. Book Prize for Honor's Voice, Abraham Lincoln Institute, 1999. Research Fellowship, Massachusetts Historical Society, 1999. Book Prize for Herndon's Informants, Abraham Lincoln Institute, 1998. Award of Achievement, Lincoln Group of New York, 1998. Elected to membership, American Antiquarian Society, 1995. Fellowship, Huntington Library, 1981, 1991, 1992. Alumni Award for Distinguished Scholarship, Doane College, 1991. Outstanding Faculty Award, Knox College, 1991. Lester J. Cappon Research Associate, Newberry Library, 1985–86. Research grants, American Council of Learned Societies, 1981, 1985. Research Fellowship, National Endowment for the Humanities, 1982–83. Research grant, American Philosophical Society, 1980.
Publications
Books
Editor, The Genteel Tradition: Nine Essays by George Santayana. Harvard University Press, 1967. Edited with James Gilreath,Thomas Jefferson's Library: A Catalog With the Entries in His Own Order, Library of Congress, 1989. Editor, Jefferson's Literary Commonplace Book, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Second Series, Princeton University Press, 1989. Jefferson's Books, Monticello Monographs, 1996. Lincoln Before Washington: New Perspectives on the Illinois Years, University of Illinois Press, 1997. Editor, Monticello: A Guide Book. Thomas Jefferson Foundation, 1997. Honor's Voice: The Transformation of Abraham Lincoln. Alfred A. Knopf, 1998. Awarded Lincoln Prize. Edited with Rodney O. Davis, Herndon's Informants: Letters, Interviews, and Statements about Abraham Lincoln. University of Illinois Press, 1998. Edited with Lucia Stanton, Jefferson Abroad. The Modern Library, 1999. Editor with Rodney O. Davis, Herndon's Lincoln, University of Illinois Press, 2006. Lincoln's Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words. Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. Awarded Lincoln Prize. Edited with Rodney O. Davis, The Lincoln-Douglas Debates: The Lincoln Studies Center Edition, University of Illinois Press, 2008. Editor with Rodney O. Davis, Herndon on Lincoln: Letters, University of Illinois Press, 2016. Editor with Rodney O. Davis, Lincoln's Confidant: The Life of Noah Brooks, by Wayne C. Temple, University of Illinois Press, 2019.