He publishes his work under the name of William M. Johnston, partially[1] in close collaboration with translators.
Since retiring from the University of Massachusetts, in 1999, he has been a professor emeritus and now lives in Australia.
Johnston, born in Boston, was educated at Harvard College, where he graduated A.
[3] At the University of Massachusetts he was the dissertation supervisor of Roderick Stackelberg, two years his junior.
[4] Johnston retired from his university's history department in 1999 with the title of Professor Emeritus, shortly before completing his two-volume Encyclopedia of Monasticism (2000).