Exeter mourns death of Professor Marilyn Butler

Exeter College is very sad to announce the death on 11 March of Professor Marilyn Butler, Rector of Exeter College from 1993 to 2004.

Professor Butler was the first woman to become the head of one of the ancient all-male Oxford – or Cambridge – colleges. She was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2002. She was King Edward VII Professor of English Literature at the University of Cambridge from 1986 to 1993. She wrote a number of influential works, including “Romantics, Rebels and Reactionaries” and “Jane Austen and the War of Ideas”. She also wrote a literary biography of the Anglo-Irish novelist Maria Edgeworth and edited a collection of her works.

She was married to Sir David Butler, the social scientist and psephologist. There will be a memorial service on Thursday 24 April at 3.30pm in the Exeter College Chapel. All are welcome.

The Guardian newspaper’s obituary is published here.