Ian Jack. In Memoriam

The Telegraph publishes the obituary of Professor Ian Jack (picture source)

Professor Ian Jack, who died on September 3 aged 84, held a chair in English Literature at Cambridge from 1976 to 1989; he made notable contributions in his field both as the editor of meticulously-researched editions of original works of poetry and literature and as a scholar who illuminated the way in which writers planned and shaped their work, how they responded to the intellectual currents and events of their time, and their relationship with the audiences for which they wrote.

His work as the general editor of the Brontë Clarendon editions of Oxford University Press is truly a milestone in Brontë scholarship:
Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey, edited by Hilda Marsden and Robert Inglesfield, 1988
Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, edited by Herbert Rosengarten, 1992
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, edited by Margaret Smith and Jane Jack, 1969; rvsd 1975
Charlotte Brontë, The Professor, edited by Margaret Smith and Herbert Rosengarten, 1987
Charlotte Brontë, Shirley, edited by Herbert Rosengarten and Margaret Smith, 1979
Charlotte Brontë, Villette, edited by Herbert Rosengarten and Margaret Smith, 1984

He even edited directly Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights with Hilda Marsden in 1976.

Apart from his acclaimed work on Browning, Jack served as general editor of the Oxford Brontë novels series; his edition of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights (edited with Hilda Marsden, 1976) is regarded as the most reliable and scholarly version of the novel yet published.

Professor Ian Jack was not only committed to the Brontës on a scholarly level:

He served at various times as president of the Charles Lamb Society, the Browning Society and the Johnson Society (Lichfield), and as vice-president of the Brontë Society. He was elected a fellow of the British Academy in 1986.

EDIT 22 September 2008: The Times publishes an obituary as well:

Ian Jack was one of the most accomplished literary scholars of his generation, best known for his meticulous and pioneering editorial work on the Brontës and Browning, and for a series of substantial critical studies ranging from the poetics of 18th-century satire to the reception of modern verse. [...]
Jack’s own critical work was marked by meticulous scholarship and an unfailing dedication to what he regarded as the intrinsic value of literature. He rejoiced in the creative vitality of the author even as others were proclaiming its death. At the outset of his career he wrote that “enthusiasm led me to literary history”, and that same enthusiasm sustained his work to the end. There was an element of celebration in everything he wrote, a revelling in the very fact of literary accomplishment that was equally evident in his contribution to several literary societies: he served as president of the Charles Lamb Society (1970-80), the Browning Society (1980-83), and the Johnson Society (1986-87) and as vice-president of the Brontë Society from 1973 onwards. [...]
As well as serving as general editor for the Brontë series, Jack co-edited Wuthering Heights (1976) with Hilda Marsden, establishing the first reliable text with a full critical apparatus.

EDIT 23 September 2008: The Edinburgh Evening News also publishes an obituary.

EDIT 24 September 2008: The Independent:

Ian Jack, Emeritus Professor of English Literature at Cambridge, was the author of a series of masterly studies and editions of English writers between 1660 and 1860. His critical discussion was careful and decisive, his editing learned and lucid. There is no reader of Keats, or of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, or of Robert Browning, but must reckon a debt to Ian Jack. (...)
Jack then turned to the Victorians and was General Editor of The Clarendon Edition of the novels of the Brontës (1969), and co-edited Wuthering Heights (1976), the most editorially problematic of the Brontë texts. For the first time we had an accurate, annotated text of Emily Brontë's great novel. Jack's collaborators in the series were Jane Jack, Robert Inglesfield, Hilda Marsden, Herbert Rosengarten and Margaret Smith. (Howard Erskine-Hill)

EDIT 30 September 2008: The University of Cambridge publishes an obituary as well.

EDIT 7 October 2008: The Telegraph from Calcutta echoes the news as well.

EDIT 2 January 2009: The Times lists Ian Jack's obituary in its 2008 selection.

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