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 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.