William Weaver, 1923-2003, was an American literary translator and critic. Weaver was born on July 24, 1923 in Washington, D.C. to Henry Byrne and Beatrice Weaver. He graduated summa cum laude with his BA from Princeton University in 1946. Weaver withdrew from Princeton in good standing on November 16, 1942 in order to enter the Armed Forces of the United States, where he served as an ambulance driver in North Africa and Italy during World War II. He continued to live primarily in Italy after the end of the war. Prior to conducting his postgraduate work at the University of Rome in 1949, Weaver was an English instructor at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville.

In the years to follow, he would produce several English translations for Italian works such as Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose and Baudolino, Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics, Primo Levi's If Not Now, When?, Italo Svevo's Zeno's Conscience, Alberto Moravia and Alain Elkann's Life of Moravia, Elsa Morante's History: A Novel, and many others. His awards for literary translation include The Lewis Galantiere Prize, the National Book Award for Translation, the PEN/Book–of–the–Month Club Translation Prize, and the John Florio Prize.

Weaver is also known for his work on opera and Eleonora Duse. He produced works such as Verdi Librettos, Puccini Librettos, Seven Verdi Librettos, and Seven Puccini Librettos, as well as providing single libretto translations for live performances. A well-known opera critic, Weaver wrote opera reviews for the Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, and Panorama; he was also a speaker on Texaco-sponsored Saturday afternoon opera broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera House. Among his several biographies and opera histories are Duse: A Biography, The Golden Century of Italian Opera from Rossini to Puccini, The Verdi Companion, Verdi: A Documentary Study, and A Legacy of Excellence, The Story of Villa I Tatti.

Later in his life, Weaver delivered many lectures and conducted translating workshops and courses at several American and Italian institutions, including Princeton, Yale, Pisa, Duke, Oxford, and the University of Rome. He was a professor of literature and a Bard Center Fellow at Bard College in New York. He was known by his students for being a generous host of class get-togethers at his house, where he would cook delicious meals. (A copy of Weaver's Joy of Cooking with his annotations is included in his book collection.) Honorary degrees were awarded to Weaver from the University of Leicester in the UK, and Trinity College in Connecticut. He died on November 12, 2013.