Born in Indiana in 1930, Winks graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Colorado in 1952. As a Fulbright Scholar in New Zealand he earned a master's degree in Maori studies from Victoria University before returning to the University of Colorado to earn a second master's degree in ethnography. He then earned a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1957 with a dissertation on Canadian and American relations. After a year of teaching at Connecticut College, he joined the faculty at Yale in 1957, where he remained for the rest of his career. He held visiting lectureships and conducted research at universities around the nation and the world, including at Sydney University in 1963 where he lectured memorably on American History, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, South Africa, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and the Middle East. He was on leave 1969-71 to serve as U.S. Cultural Attache to the American Embassy in London, and was a regular adviser to various governmental agencies.
Winks was a lover of the outdoors and spent much of his career advocating for the protection of open spaces. He served as chair of the National Parks System Advisory Board, and in 1988, was awarded the Department of the Interior’s Conservationist of the Year Award. In 1998, he became the first person to have visited all of the National Park Service units (there were 376 at that time).[4][5]
In 1999, the National Parks Conservation Association honored him with its first award for contributions to public education on behalf of the national parks. They subsequently established the honor as an annual award named the Robin W. Winks Award for Enhancing Public Understanding of National Parks[6]
In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Robin Winks, OCLC/WorldCat encompasses roughly 180 works in 460 publications in six languages and 24,000+ library holdings.[7]
Recent Trends and New Literature in Canadian History; five editions published between 1959 and 1967 in English
Canada and the United States: The Civil War Years (McGill-Queen's Press, 1960); six editions published between 1960 and 1998 in English read online
British Imperialism: Gold, God, Glory; five editions published between 1963 and 1973 in English search online
The Historiography of the British Empire–Commonwealth: Trends, Interpretations and Resources; two editions published in 1966 in English
Malaysia: Selected Historical Readings (with John Bastin) (Oxford University Press, 1966) search online
The Age of Imperialism (Prentice-Hall, 1969); two editions published in 1969 in English search online
The Historian as Detective: Essays on Evidence (New York: Harper & Row, 1969); published in 1969 in English search online
Pastmasters: Some Essays on American Historians (with Marcus Cunliffe) (New York: Harper & Row, 1969) search online
The Myth of the American Frontier: Its Relevance to America, Canada and Australia (Leicester University Press, 1971) search online
Detective Fiction: A Collection of Critical Essays (Prentice-Hall, 1980); four editions published between 1980 and 1988 in English search online
Modus Operandi: An Excursion into Detective Fiction' (Boston: D.R. Godine, 1981); three editions published between 1981 and 1990 in English search onlineread online
Colloquium on Crime: Eleven Renowned Mystery Writers Discuss their Work; published in 1986 in English search online
The Lily and the Lion: Royal France, Great Britain (with Philip Mansel) (Boston Publishing Company, 1987) search online
Frederick Billings: A Life (Oxford University Press, 1991); three editions published between 1991 and 1998 in English and Undetermined search online
Asia in Western Fiction (with James R. Rush); six editions published between 1989 and 1990 in English
The Historiography of the British Empire-Commonwealth: Trends, Interpretations, and Resources (Aldershot: Gregg Revivals, 1995) search online
Laurance S. Rockefeller: Catalyst for Conservation; four editions published in 1997 in English
Mystery and Suspense Writers: the Literature of Crime, Detection, and Espionage (New York: Scribner's Sons, 1998); two editions published in 1998 in English and held by 1,175 libraries worldwide search online
Robin William Winks papers, 1950–2001. Yale University
Records of the Bicentennial Committee for International Conferences of Americanists, 1973–1977 by Bicentennial Committee for International Conferences of Americanists.
Records of the United States Bicentennial Committee, Yale University, 1970–1977. Yale University
