[1][2][3] He helped to develop and served as managing editor of the journal American Literature from 1986 to 1991.
He served from 1942 to 1945 in the U.S. Air Force and then received his Ph.D. in 1949 from the University of Wisconsin, completing the PhD under the GI Bill.
[5] Budd spent the majority of his academic career at Duke University, teaching there from 1952 until his retirement in 1991.
[5] The many publications and papers of Louis J. Budd are archived in the library of Duke University.
[7] Budd was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship in 1965–66, a Fulbright grant, and the 1998 Jay B. Hubbell medal from the Modern Language Association.