From Alexandra Johnston:
We learned today that Larry Clopper, one of REED's first editors, has
died in Bloomington, Indiana.
I first met Larry at the Medieval Drama Seminar at the Modern Language
Association in Chicago in 1973 when Margaret Dorrell Rogerson and
myself who were editing the York records, Larry who was editing the
Chester records and David Galloway who was editing the Norwich records
had been invited to give papers on our work. It was at that meeting
that the idea of REED was born and from the beginning Larry was an
active partner. His edition of the Chester records was well advanced
by the time REED was operational in 1976 and the fledgling editorial
team in Toronto was able to form REED's editorial policies as two very
different collections -- Chester and York -- were being processed.
Both collections were published in 1979. Larry was a longstanding
member of the REED Advisory Board from the beginning of the project.
Although his scholarly interests widened after the publication of the
Chester volume to include other areas of Middle English literature
such as Piers Plowman, he responded gamely to the suggestion of a
second edition of his Chester records in the context of the records of
Cheshire edited by Elizabeth Baldwin and David Mills. This collection
was published in 2007 almost 30 years after his original research. All
three editors were at the launch in Chester and those of us there were
treated to a spirited but amicable debate between Larry and David
about the pageant route standing on the streets of Chester in the
pouring rain. We note with sadness that Larry and David -- two great
REED men of Chester -- have died within a year of each other.
Larry made other important contributions to the study of early theatre
and its cultural context particularly through his controversial book
Drama, Play and Game: English Festive Culture in the Medieval and
Early Modern Period (2001). He loved an argument and would defend his
ideas with great vigour -- but such debates were invariably followed
by a glass of good wine or a great meal in a restaurant he had just
discovered. He will be missed by all of us in the REED community.
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