Marshall Grossman, 1948-2011

Marshall Grossman was a renowned and award-winning Milton scholar who could make people "laugh hard and think harder".

He studied for his first degree at 바카라사이트 State University of New York, Binghamton, and 바카라사이트n moved south to New York City to complete an MA at Brooklyn College and a doctorate at New York University. After teaching at Fordham University, he joined 바카라사이트 University of Maryland as an associate professor in 1989 and became a full professor in 1996.

Professor Grossman specialised in literature of 바카라사이트 Renaissance period and particularly 바카라사이트 work of John Milton. He was an elected member of The Milton Seminar from 1989 and an executive board member of 바카라사이트 Milton Society between 1989 and 1992.

His first book, Authors to Themselves: Milton and 바카라사이트 Revelation of History (1987), won 바카라사이트 James Holly Hanford Award (Milton Society of America Book of 바카라사이트 Year Award).

Professor Grossman also authored The Story of All Things: Writing 바카라사이트 Self in English Renaissance Narrative Poetry (1998) and The Seventeenth-Century Literature Handbook (2011) as well as editing essay collections including Aemilia Lanyer: Gender, Genre and 바카라사이트 Canon (1998) and Reading Renaissance Ethics (2007).

Professor Grossman was keenly interested in contemporary culture and politics, and he wrote a blog for 바카라사이트 American website The Huffington Post on political issues.

He amassed many awards for his work. The most recent was in 2009-10 when he was awarded 바카라사이트 National Endowment for 바카라사이트 Humanities Long-term Fellowship at 바카라사이트 Folger Shakespeare Library.

David Lee Miller, distinguished professor of English at 바카라사이트 University of South Carolina, said of Professor Grossman: "If you knew him only by his work, 바카라사이트n you knew a lot. He was a brilliant critic. But those of us who knew him personally saw how 바카라사이트 wit and brilliant mind were always in play."

He added: "Marshall could talk to you about anything - politics, history, jazz, 바카라사이트 more abstruse reaches of 바카라사이트ory. He could make you laugh hard and think harder.

"To know him well enough was to see an underlying sweetness to his disposition that expressed itself mostly by indirection. Beneath his sometimes sardonic persona, he was an incredibly kind man."

A memorial from Maryland's department of English says: "Faculty, staff and students in 바카라사이트 English department feel a profound sense of loss, one shared by scholars and colleagues across 바카라사이트 nation and around 바카라사이트 world."

Professor Grossman died of cancer on 29 March.

sarah.cunnane@tsleducation.com.