Two distinguished faculty members die

Victorian literature expert Cecil Lang

Cecil Y. Lang, professor emeritus of English and a noted editor of Victorian letters, died Feb.15 at the age of 85. He was a scholar and teacher for 25 years until his retirement in 1991.

He spent 20 years of painstaking research resulting in a multi-volume publication of all the known letters of Matthew Arnold, one of the 19th century’s greatest cultural figures. The publication presented about 4,000 fully annotated letters.

“The Letters of Matthew Arnold,” when published in its full six volumes in the University Press of Virginia’s Victorian Literature and Culture series, not only shed new light on a major Victorian poet and the major literary critics of his time, but also added to a fuller understanding of the era.

Lang was one of a small group of scholars who transformed the standards of editorial practice in literary studies. Other chief works were monumental editions of the correspondence of the poet Algernon Charles Swinburne, and the laureate Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Lang published 20 volumes during his career. He later became known as “The Prince of Editors.” In England, he was elected a member of the British Academy and a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

A native of North Carolina, he earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees from Duke University in 1941 and 1942, respectively. In 1949 he earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Before coming to U.Va. in 1966, he taught at Yale, the Claremont Graduate School, Syracuse University and the University of Chicago.

A memorial service will be held at a later date.

Longtime archivist Francis Berkeley

Francis Lewis Berkeley Jr., 91, University archivist and professor emeritus who was instrumental in developing the library, died Feb. 19 at his home in Charlottesville.

Berkeley, who retired in 1974, was cited numerous times for his outstanding service to the library, in particular his efforts to develop and enrich its manuscript resources.

“Mr. Berkeley was a man of enormous substance, character and grace,” said William H. Fishback Jr., former associate vice president for University Relations. “He put the University first in all that he did as archivist and later as assistant to President [Edgar] Shannon.”

An Albemarle County native, Berkeley received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from U.Va. He joined the faculty in 1938 as the University’s first curator of manuscripts.

Berkeley was named to a new post as executive assistant to President Shannon in 1963. He also served as secretary of the Board of Visitors.

He established the University Press of Virginia and insisted on its being a statewide press sheltered by U.Va. but dedicated to service as a scholarly publishing house serving all of Virginia’s institutions. Berkeley also helped to create the principal documentary publications of the new press, The Papers of James Madison and The Papers of George Washington.

As curator, Berkeley devised a cataloguing system based on the British Museum’s Catalogue of Additional Manuscripts, and he began the creation of a central archives for the University. Berkeley received the Raven Society Award in 1973 for distinguished service to the University.

A memorial service will be scheduled at a later date.