A Memorial, Celebrating the life of Carter Revard (Date & Location Updated)
Carter Revard, Professor Emeritus of English, passed away in January of this year.
The English Department, along with the Revard Family, will be hosting a memorial on Wednesday, June 29th at 2:00, in the Women's Building Formal Lounge, to celebrate life the life of Carter Revard, share stories, and reflect on the great impact he had on this community.
We encourage you to extend this invitation to anyone you know who is connected to Carter or his family. Additionally, we realize that travel is not always possible. If you cannot attend the memorial, please send your sentiments to Lawrence (lbrevard@wustl.edu), who will share them with those who can attend, or contribute to the online obituary here: https://stlouiscremation.com/obituaries/carter-curtis-revard/.
On Campus, The Record published a full obituary, with beautiful pictures.
Carter taught in the English department for over thirty years, retiring in 1997. He published scholarship on a wide range of Middle English poetry, including Chaucer, the Pearl-Poet, and William Langland, but was most celebrated for his landmark research on the medieval manuscript known as Harley 2253, an extraordinary collection of literature in English, French, and Latin now housed in the British Library. His identification of the scribe responsible for much of the manuscript, as it comes down to us, opened up a world of knowledge about the cultural contexts of this book, its contents, and its readers. Carter edited and translated works from Harley 2253, placed them in conversation with Boccaccio and Chaucer, and examined the logic and purpose of the entire anthology.
Carter was also a renowned and award-winning poet and essayist whose commitment to medieval study was complemented by a lifelong devotion to teaching and promoting Native American culture and writing; his poetry and essays spoke to these values. Carter's collections of work include: Ponca War Dancers (1980), Cowboys and Indians, Christmas Shopping (1992), An Eagle Nation (1993), and How the Songs Come Down (2005); as well as a collection of essays, Family Matters, Tribal Affairs (1998), and a mixed-genre memoir, Winning the Dust Bowl (2001).
Listen to Carter read aloud the poem "Close Encounters" (a River Styx reading at Duff's).
From Lawrence Revard and the entire Washington University family, we hope to see you June 29th.