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Research dossier · Arts & Letters

The Headmaster (book)

book by John McPhee

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJan 11, 2026
Entity authorityQ7739117 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Headmaster: Frank L. Boyden of Deerfield is a 1966 book by John McPhee, profiling Frank Boyden, the long-time headmaster of Deerfield Academy. The book was expanded from a magazine profile in The New Yorker.

Critical reception

The Kirkus review called the book an "effortless portrait" and wrote that it was "much more interesting" than Roger Drury's Drury of St. Paul's (1964).

The Boston Globe review noted that the book was not only a depiction of Boyden, but also "a record of the touching and memorable partnership of a man and his wife."

Jan Ophus wrote in Education Week in 2000 that the book should be required reading for every high school principal.

Editorial summary

“The Headmaster (book)” enters the record as book by John McPhee. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Headmaster, book and John can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1966, 1964, 2000—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1966-01-01. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Headmaster, book and John.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“The Headmaster (book)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Headmaster, book and John provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7739117. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1966, 1964 and 2000.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Headmaster (book)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Headmaster (book) primary sources, The Headmaster (book) archive and Headmaster research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Headmaster (book)”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The Headmaster (book)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.