Marilyn Speers Butler, Lady Butler,

FRSA The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

FRSL The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 600 Fellows, elec ...

, FBA (''née'' Evans; 11 February 1937 – 11 March 2014) was a British

literary critic Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. ...

. She was

King Edward VII Professor of English Literature The King Edward VII Professorship of English Literature is one of the senior professorships in literature at the University of Cambridge, and was founded by a donation from Sir Harold Harmsworth in 1910 in memory of King Edward VII who had died ear ...

at the

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from 1986 to 1993, and

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Exeter College, Oxford (Let Exeter Flourish) , old_names = ''Stapeldon Hall'' , named_for = Walter de Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter , established = , sister_college = Emmanuel College, Cambridge , rector = Sir Richard Trainor ...

, from 1993 to 2004. She was the first female head of a formerly all male Oxford or Cambridge college. She won the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars s ...

Rose Mary Crawshay Prize The Rose Mary Crawshay Prize is a literary prize for female scholars, inaugurated in 1888 by the British Academy. Description The prize, set up in 1888, is said by the British Academy to be the only UK literary prize specifically for female sch ...

in 1973.

Biography

Marilyn Speers Evans was born in

Coombe, Kingston upon Thames Coombe is a historic neighbourhood in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in south west London, England. It sits on high ground, east of Norbiton. Most of the area was part of the former Municipal Borough of Malden and Coombe before local ...

on 11 February 1937. Her father, Sir Trevor Maldwyn Evans was a journalist and her mother was Margaret Speers "Madge" Evans (née Gribbin). At the age of two, she was evacuated with her mother and elder brother to New Quay in Wales, where she remained until the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. She was educated at Wimbledon High School and

St Hilda's College, Oxford St Hilda's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college is named after the Anglo-Saxon Saint, Hilda of Whitby and was founded in 1893 as a hall for women; it remained a women's college until 20 ...

,British Academy: The British Academy Book Prize - Judging Panel
graduating with a first class degree in English in 1958. She became a school teacher, but in 1960 joined the BBC as a journalist. On 3 March 1962, she married David Butler; the couple had three sons. After she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2004, Butler's health declined and she died at Headington Care Home, Oxford on 11 March 2014 as a result of a respiratory tract infection.

Career

In the early 1960s, Butler left journalism, and returned to academia, completing her doctorate thesis in 1966 in Oxford. She received a research fellowship at

. Her published works include ''Romantics, Rebels and Reactionaries'' and ''Jane Austen and the War of Ideas''. Much of her work was devoted to the career of the Anglo-Irish Romantic

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire ...

Maria Edgeworth Maria Edgeworth (1 January 1768 – 22 May 1849) was a prolific Anglo-Irish novelist of adults' and children's literature. She was one of the first realist writers in children's literature and was a significant figure in the evolution of the n ...

, a relative of her husband, including a classic literary biography and an important edition of her collected works for

Pickering & Chatto Pickering & Chatto is an imprint of Routledge which publishes in the humanities and social sciences, specializing in monographs, critical editions (works, diaries, correspondence) and thematic source collections. Pickering & Chatto's academic mono ...

. She collaborated with her sister-in-law

Christina Colvin Christina Colvin, Lady Colvin (''née'' Butler; 20 January 1919, Oxford – 7 August 2003, Oxford) was a British literary scholar and historian of Oxfordshire. She won the British Academy's Rose Mary Crawshay Prize in 1973. Life Christina Edgewo ...

on Maria Edgeworth, resulting in two books for which they each won the Rose Mary Crawshay Prize in 1973. In June 2003 she was awarded an

honorary degree An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad h ...

from the

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as Doctor of the University. Butler was a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in the United Kingdom # ...

Works

Books

*''Maria Edgeworth: A Literary Biography'' (1972) *''Jane Austen and the War of Ideas'' (1975) *''Romantics, Rebels, and Reactionaries: English Literature and Its Background, 1760-1830'' (1982) *''Mapping Mythologies: Countercurrents in Eighteenth-Century British Poetry and Cultural History'' (2015)

Edited books

*''Frankenstein: 1818 text'' (

Oxford World's Classics Oxford World's Classics is an imprint of Oxford University Press. First established in 1901 by Grant Richards and purchased by OUP in 1906, this imprint publishes primarily dramatic and classic literature for students and the general public. ...

, 1994, rpt 1998, 2008)

References

External links

Obituary - The Daily TelegraphProfile - British Academy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Butler, Marilyn 1937 births 2014 deaths Alumni of St Hilda's College, Oxford British literary critics British women literary critics Fellows of King's College, Cambridge Fellows of St Hugh's College, Oxford Fellows of the British Academy Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature People educated at Wimbledon High School Rectors of Exeter College, Oxford Rose Mary Crawshay Prize winners Mary Wollstonecraft scholars King Edward VII Professors of English Literature Wives of knights