My conversation with Kent Hieatt was one of the most memorable moments of
my first experience at Kalamazoo. He was gracious with his attention, and
was... impishly challenging, but with great good cheer. The legacy of his
Spenser scholarship is profound, but I would also like to note his and
Constance's modernization of Chaucer (still in print via Bantam), with
facing-page medieval original text, which I regularly use in my 200-level
literature courses. How amazing to produce an academic book originally
published in 1964! still in such wide circulation.
Bruce Danner
St. Lawrence University
> [Original Message]
> From: William Oram <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 1/12/2009 4:30:12 PM
> Subject: Re: Kent Hieatt
>
> I didn’t know Kent well, but I also was the recipient of his
> generosity, which was most often expressed, I think, toward those
> younger than he was. And I’ve always been struck by how, once he had
> stunned many of us with Short Times Endless Monument, he went on to
> other projects with only the occasional look back—to the concern with
> male aggression in Chaucer, Spenser, Milton, to the brilliant essay on
> Du Bellay and Shakespeare and the ruins project that Anne mentioned, and
> to the difficult, painstaking, important attempt to date Shakespeare's
> sonnets. He was never afraid to mount an idea and ride it wherever it
> took him. Bill Oram
>
>
>
>
>
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>
> William Oram
> [log in to unmask]
> 413-585-3322
>
>
> >>> Linda Vecchi <[log in to unmask]> 01/12/09 12:00 PM >>>
> I, too, am saddened by the news of Kent's passing. As my supervisor at
> Western
> Ontario more than 20 years ago, Kent opened the world of Spenser's
> imagination
> to me, and guided me on my own explorations in Faerieland and beyond.
> Kent and
> Connie were at the center of the graduate social life (I have fond
> memories of
> many a Medieval feast at their lovely home). He will be greatly
> missed.
>
> Dr. Linda Vecchi
> Department of English
> Memorial University of Newfoundland
> St. John's, NL A1C 5S7
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