Derek Pearsall

{{Short description|British medievalist (1931–2021)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2018}} {{Use British English|date=February 2018}} '''Derek Albert Pearsall''' (1931–2021) was an English medievalist and Chaucerian who wrote and published widely on Chaucer, Langland, Gower, manuscript studies, and medieval history and culture.<ref>Gustafson, Kevin. “New Directions in Medieval Manuscript Studies and Reading Practices: Essays in Honor of Derek Pearsall.” ''Journal of the Early Book Society for the Study of Manuscripts and Printing History'' 18 (2015).</ref> He was the co-director for the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of York and was the Gurney Professor of English Literature at Harvard University.<ref>{{cite web |title=People |url=https://english.fas.harvard.edu/our-people |accessdate=13 November 2018 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Brewer">{{cite book|editor=Aers, David|chapter=''Preface'' by Derek Brewer|title=Medieval Literature and Historical Inquiry: Essays in Honor of Derek Pearsall|location=Cambridge|publisher=D. S. Brewer|year=2000|pages=vii–ix|isbn=9780859915557|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wgh_IQeuqz4C&pg=PR7}}</ref> In 1998, he delivered the British Academy's Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture.<ref>{{cite web|title=Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lectures|website=The British Academy|url=https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/events/lectures/listings/sir-israel-gollancz-memorial-lectures/}} [https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/2466/101p077-Pearsall.pdf text]</ref>

==Early and personal life== Pearsall was born in Birmingham to parents Elsie (née Rawlins) and Joseph, a shop fitter toolmaker, and attended King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys. The first in his family to go to university,<ref name="tg obit"/> Pearsall earned a B.A. in 1951 and an M.A. in 1952 from the University of Birmingham (UK).<ref name=Brewer/>

In 1952 in King's Lynn, Pearsall married Rosemary Elvidge (d. 2004), whom he had met as a student. They had five children.<ref name="tg obit">{{Cite journal|url=https://theguardian.com/theguardian/2021/dec/24/derek-pearsall-obituary|title=Derek Pearsall obituary|journal=The Guardian|first=Ronald|last=Waldron|date=24 December 2021|accessdate=26 April 2024}}</ref> The couple considered York, where they returned to upon retirement and had a permanent house in Clifton, to be their home.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.york.ac.uk/medieval-studies/news/pearsallobituary/|title=In Remembrance of Derek Pearsall|website=University of York|date=17 October 2021|accessdate=26 April 2024}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{wikiquote}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20160503035729/http://www3.nd.edu/~pearsall/ Complete Bibliography]. A complete up-to-date bibliography of Derek Pearsall's published work.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pearsall, Derek}} Category:1931 births Category:2021 deaths Category:Academics from Birmingham, West Midlands Category:Academics of King's College London Category:Academics of the University of York Category:Alumni of the University of Birmingham Category:British medievalists Category:English historians Category:Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America Category:Harvard University faculty Category:People educated at King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys