The word has just spread that Derek Brewer died last night.
For those who don't know who he is, here is a rather understated biography of him. In addition to his own academic work, he also supported medieval studies through publishing and editing with Boydell & Brewer. Even if you aren't an academic, if you've got an interest in medieval studies, you've got a Boydell & Brewer book on your shelves somewhere.
In the e-mail that came around, Elaine Treharne called him "one of the greatest medievalists of our age." That's no exaggeration, but like so many of the truly great, he left behind an infrastructure that will survive him. We'll still benefit from his work for many years to come.
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A bleg for our friends in the UK: If you see an obituary for Brewer, please send a link along. I tried constructing a brief academic bio for Brewer myself, but the man just wrote, edited, and published so, so very much, that it seemed like trying to describe the sea by naming one drop at a time.
ReplyDeleteYou know - I had never connected B&B with THAT Brewer!
ReplyDeleteToday's Independent has an informative obit
ReplyDeletehttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/professor-derek-brewer-scholar-of-medieval-literature-who-led-the-field-of-chaucer-studies-after-the-second-world-war-989663.html
sorry about the long url!
There was also an obituary in The Daily Telegraph
ReplyDeletehttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/3368297/Professor-Derek-Brewer.html
and there will be one coming out in The Times.
The funeral was very much as he would have wished it to be - in the College chapel, with the Prayer Book Service - and his coffin was carried all round front court. If anoyone is in Cambridge at the time, there'll be a memorial service for him on Saturday 7 February 2009 at Gt St Mary's church.
I enjoyed reading your blog thanks
ReplyDelete