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Article: PROFESSOR GRAHAM REES
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- August 20, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2009 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Scholar and inspirational teacher celebrated for his editing of
Francis Bacon
In January this year the scholar Graham Rees was awarded an OBE.
"So what was your OBE for?" his nurse asked him a few days before he
died. "Services to pedantry," he told her.
The joke renders the man. Firstly in that he could have mustered
the spirit to make a joke at all at such a time, secondly in that
the last person he ever exempted from the mordancy of his wit was
himself. In fact, he was one of those scholars who give pedantry a
good name. The great scholastic project which he had for many years
directed and which must now go on without him - a 15-volume critical
edition of the works of the philosopher and ...