What impressed me most about Richard's responses to the Colin Clout medal
and to the MLA panel in his honor was that in both cases, rather than
receiving the tributes primarily as pronouncements about a distinguished
career, he immediately reinserted them into the ongoing scholarly
conversation.  After receiving the medal and its accompanying letter, he
responded by appreciatively quoting one of our phrases of congratulation and
carrying it forward into a précis of a discussion that he wanted to begin
with the publication of his next book.  And of course he participated
magnificently in his own MLA panel, via a recording.  He didn't use
euphemisms about the fact that he was dying, but he wanted to keep up a
genuine intellectual exchange as long as possible.

Dot Stephens