Robert Latham (editor)

Robert Clifford Latham, CBE (1973), MA, FBA [cite web|title = British Academy listing|url = http://www.britac.ac.uk/fellowship/directory/archive.asp?fellowsID=309 |accessdate = 2008-05-07] (1982) was Fellow and Pepys Librarian of Magdalene College, Cambridge and joint author of the "The Diary of Samuel Pepys", 1970-83

Personal Life

He was born in Audley, Staffordshire, England 11 March 1912, died 4 January 1995, age 82. Married 1: Eileen Ramsay, 1939, died 1969 (one son, one daughter); 2: Rosalind (‘Linnet’) Birley 1973, died 1990, suicide.

Educated at Wolstanton Grammar School, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire and Queens' College, Cambridge where he received a double First Class Honours Degree in history.

Academic Career

In 1935 he was appointed an Assistant Lecturer at King's College London, and a Lecturer in 1939. He was Reader in History (1947-1972) and Dean of Men [Cite book | author=Bingham, Caroline | authorlink= | coauthors= | title=The history of the Royal Holloway College 1886-1986 | date=1987 | publisher=Constable | location=London | isbn=0-09-468200-3 | pages=] (1965-1968) at Royal Holloway College, University of London, during the introduction of male undergraduates. From 1968-69 he was Professor of History at the University of Toronto.

From 1970-72 he was Research Fellow, 1972-84 Fellow and 1984-94 Hon Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge, where, as Pepys Librarian 1972-82, he had charge of the remarkable collection of books, prints and manuscripts which Pepys left to his old College. He devoted the greater part of his life to the study of the Diary. Linnet, his second wife, worked with him during the compilation of the Index and Companion volumes of the definitive edition of The Diary of Samuel Pepys.

His work, in collaboration with Professor Willam Matthews of UCLA, "The Diary of Samuel Pepys - A New and Complete Transcription", published by 1970–83, was begun in 1950. [Cite book | author=Pepys, Samuel; Latham, Robert; Matthews, William | authorlink= | coauthors= | title=The diary of Samuel Pepys | date= | publisher=Berkeley, University of California Press 1970-1983. | location= | isbn=0-7135-1551-1 | pages=] . Robert Latham stated: "This was the first edition in which the entire text was printed and a comprehensive commentary published." [Cite book | author=Latham, Robert | authorlink= | coauthors= | title=The Illustrated Pepys | date=1978 | publisher=Bell & Hyman | location=London | isbn=0-71-351750-6 | pages= pp12-13] This included the erotic passages omitted in the edition of 1893-9 by H B Wheatley which: "could hardly have been published in Victorian England without causing offence".

References

External Links

* [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19960116/ai_n9637219 Obituary in The Independent, London Retrieved 2008-05-07]
* [http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=hb1199n68c&doc.view=frames&chunk.id=div00066&toc.depth=1&toc.id= William Matthews at the California Digital Library]