Charles Warren Hollister

Who was Charles Warren Hollister?

Charles Warren Hollister was an American author and historian, "one of the best medieval generalists in the world" He was one of the founding members of the University of California Santa Barbara history department. He specialized in English medieval history, especially studies that emphasized the interrelationship of England within the Anglo-Norman realm and the development of administrative kingship.

Hollister was born in Los Angeles, the son of Nathan and Carrie Hollister. He graduated with honors from Harvard University in 1951, served in the United States Air Force during the Korean War, and received his Ph.D from UCLA in 1958.

Hollister spent his academic career at the University of California, Santa Barbara, officially retiring in 1994. He was elected as a fellow of the Medieval Academy of America in 1981 and was also a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Medieval Academy of Ireland. In May 1982, he and his graduate students founded the Charles Homer Haskins Society, dedicated to the study of Viking, Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Norman, and early Angevin history. His research centered on the career of Henry I of England; his biography of that monarch, set back at a late stage by the loss of his manuscript and note cards and his entire research library in the Santa Barbara fire of 1990, was incomplete at the time of his death but subsequently finished by his doctoral student Amanda Clark Frost and published by Yale University Press, 2001.