Bertrand Alvin Goldgar, 81, died on the evening of Wednesday, October 14, at Cherry Meadows Hospice in Appleton. At the time of his death he was Professor of English and John N. Bergstrom Professor of Humanities at Lawrence University, where he had taught since 1957. He was the longest-serving faculty member in the history of Lawrence.
Professor Goldgar was a renowned scholar, a much-beloved teacher, a devoted and loving husband and father, and a charming, funny man who delighted and sometimes infuriated all who knew him.
He was born on November 17, 1927, in Macon, Georgia, the third son of Benjamin Meyer Goldgar and Annie Shapiro Goldgar. After graduating from Sidney Lanier High School in Macon, he attended Vanderbilt University, where he earned a B.A. and an M.A. in English literature and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. In 1950 he married Corinne Cohn Hartman in Nashville. After obtaining his M.A. he taught at Clemson College (now Clemson University) in South Carolina, and, following a period at Fort Lee, Virginia, in the Quartermaster Corps during the Korean War, he began graduate work in English at Princeton University. There he earned a second M.A. and completed his Ph.D in 1958.
In 1957 he began his career at Lawrence. Teaching classes on satire, eighteenth-century literature, Renaissance literature, as well as survey courses and introductions to literary analysis, he delighted generations of students with his mordant wit, his sarcasm, his charm, and his knowledge of and pleasure in his own subject. He made himself beloved as well by his openness to his students, befriending the many who came to him year after year for amusement and guidance alike. The light in his Main Hall office was often on when the rest of the building was dark, and he was almost always available to talk to his students. As a result many remained in touch with him, even decades after their graduation. In 2007 a group of alumni honored him with a surprise party (“the Bert-Day Party”) to celebrate his fiftieth year of teaching at Lawrence. The Lawrence adminstration had already honored him with its Excellence in Teaching Award in 1976.
Professor Goldgar was one of the greatest scholars to be associated with Lawrence. He was a world-renowned literary historian and editor, specializing particularly in the works of Fielding and Swift. In 1961 he published The Curse of Party: Swift’s Relations with Addison and Steele, and in 1965 he edited a collection of Alexander Pope’s literary criticism. His book Walpole and the Wits: The Relation of Politics to Literature, 1722-1742 (1976) addressed a vitally important question in English eighteenth-century literary history; it continues to be cited as a standard work by historians and literary specialists.
During the past two decades his scholarship turned toward the historical editing of important eighteenth-century texts, and he made his mark as one of the premier scholars in this field. He was editor of three volumes for the authoritative Wesleyan Edition of the works of Henry Fielding, publishing The Covent-Garden Journal in 1988, the Miscellanies, Volume Two in 1993, and the third volume of the Miscellanies, including the novel Jonathan Wild, in 1997. In 2002 he produced an annotated facsimile edition of the satirical eighteenth-century newspaper The Grub-Street Journal. Most recently he served as one of only three American editors involved in the Cambridge University Press edition of the complete works of Jonathan Swift. He was co-editor of the first volume in the series, published in 2008, consisting of Swift’s political writings from 1711-1714, and at the time of his death he was nearly finished with a second volume of political writings from 1701-1711. In addition to these books, he was the author of 22 articles on subjects to do with Pope, Swift, Fielding, and other subjects, as well as frequent reviews for scholarly journals. He was the recipient of a number of honors, including an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship in 1973 and a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship in 1980. Lawrence presented him with its Award for Excellence in Scholarship in 2008. Since 1968 Professor Goldgar spent nearly every summer doing research at the British Library in London, where he was an integral part of the community of scholars (including his daughter Anne) working there with rare books.
Bert was a rare combination of curmudgeonliness and charm, of kindliness and mischief, and he delighted in the foibles of the world even as he ranted against them. His laughter and the laughter he provoked will be sorely missed.
He is survived by his wife, Corinne, of Appleton; his son Ben (Marci), of Chicago; his daughter, Anne (Justin Elliott), of London; his granddaughters Sarah and Leah; and a brother, Harry.
The Goldgar family wishes to thank ThedaCare Hospice and Cherry Meadows Hospice for their expert and compassionate care.
A memorial service will take place at a later date.
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