Edward Pechter (12 February 1941 - 10 February 2023)

It is with great sorrow that we announce the passing of Edward Pechter (12 February 1941 - 10 February 2023), Distinguished Professor Emeritus in our department. Edward retired from the Concordia English Department in 1999. He had been hired as a Lecturer in the English Department of Sir George Williams University in 1968.  He published five books: Dryden’s Classical Theory of Literature (Cambridge, 1975), What Was Shakespeare? Renaissance Plays and Changing Critical Practice (Cornell, 1995), Textual and Theatrical Shakespeare: Questions of Evidence (University of Iowa Press, 1996), Othello and Interpretive Traditions (University of Iowa Press, 1999), Shakespeare Studies Today: Romanticism Lost (Palgrave Macmillan 2011). He edited the Norton Othello (2004) and published many provocative and incisive articles on the state of literary studies. He was beloved as a teacher, mentor, and colleague, who remained deeply engaged with questions about critical practice and the profession. His most recent essay about Shakespeare and the Digital Humanities is forthcoming, and we encourage you all to read it when it appears.