Arthur H. Cash

Who is Arthur H. Cash?

Arthur Hill Cash is an American scholar of 18th-century English literature.

Cash is best known as the author of the definitive two-volume biography of Laurence Sterne, published between 1975 and 1986. He has also written a popular biography of the 18th-century politician John Wilkes, who was influential in developing ideas concerning civil liberties in England and the United States. The book, titled John Wilkes: The Scandalous Father of Civil Liberty, was one of three finalists for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for biography.

Cash taught university literature courses for forty-five years, including popular classes in the Bible and Greek and Roman Literature. He retired from the State University of New York at New Paltz as one of only a handful of faculty with the title of Distinguished Professor. Before that he taught at the University of Colorado, the University of New Mexico, and Colorado State University.

Cash was born in Gary, Indiana, and lived in or near Chicago for many years. Starting off as a stage actor, he joined the 108th General Hospital at the beginning of American involvement in the Second World War. He enrolled at the University of Chicago on the G.I.