Agnes Mary Christabel Latham (31 January 1905 – 13 January 1996) was a British academic, Professor of English at Bedford College. She is remembered for her lifelong project of editing the letters of

Sir Walter Raleigh Sir Walter Raleigh (; – 29 October 1618) was an English statesman, soldier, writer and explorer. One of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, he played a leading part in English colonisation of North America, suppressed rebellion ...

and for her edition of ''

As You Like It ''As You Like It'' is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 and first published in the First Folio in 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has b ...

'' for the Arden Shakespeare.

Early life

Latham was the middle of three daughters of Harry Latham and Francis Marian Latham. She studied at Wakefield Girls' High School, and later received a scholarship to

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Ir ...

. There, she graduated with a first class

English Literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

and Language degree.

Career

In 1929 she published her edition of the poems of Sir Walter Raleigh. Her research was completed within a year, funded by a grant from Wakefield Girls' High School. After a period of school teaching, she obtained a post of lecturing in English at

Bedford College, London file:Bedford College in York place - photographer is unknown but guess 1908.png, Bedford College was in York Place after 1874 Bedford College was founded in London in 1849 as the first higher education college for education of women, women in th ...

in 1940 but was suspended until 1946 because of the outbreak of World War II. She remained at Bedford college until 1958. At Bedford, her lectures focused on English language and

syntax In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituency) ...

. Her project of editing Sir Walter Raleigh's letters gained her international recognition. Their publication is currently being completed at

Exeter University , mottoeng = "We Follow the Light" , established = 1838 - St Luke's College1855 - Exeter School of Art1863 - Exeter School of Science 1955 - University of Exeter (received royal charter) , type = Public , ...

. Between then and her retirement in 1973, she gained a readership and engaged in teachings of Shakespeare and

Milton Milton may refer to: Names * Milton (surname), a surname (and list of people with that surname) ** John Milton (1608–1674), English poet * Milton (given name) ** Milton Friedman (1912–2006), Nobel laureate in Economics, author of '' Free t ...

in 1958. During this time she was frequently reviewing anonymously for '' The Times Literary Supplement''. Latham is perhaps best known for her edition of ''

'' for the Arden Shakespeare which was published subsequent to her retirement in 1975. It was considered "impressive not only for its weight of scholarly insight but also for its careful consideration of the readers needed to be persuaded to share her prestigious knowledge of the Renaissance period and its values the better to appreciate the power of the text as drama".

Publications

*Shakespeare, William, ed. Angles Latham, As you like it: The Arden Shakespeare. Methuem publishing, 22 May 1975 *Latham, Agnes M. C. Sir Walter Ralegh. London: Longmans, Green, 1964 *Raleigh, Walter, and Agnes Mary Christabel. LATHAM. The Poems of Sir Walter Ralegh. Edited with an introduction by Agnes M.C. Latham. Pp. lxiii. 182. *Routledge & Kegan Paul: London, 1951 *Ralegh, Walter, and Agnes M. C. Latham. Selected Prose and Poetry. University of London: Athlone Press, 1965 *Raleigh, Walter, Agnes M. C. Latham, and Joyce A. Youings. The letters of Sir Walter Ralegh. Exeter: U of Exeter Press, 1999 *Raleigh, Walter ed. Latham, Agnes. The poems. Constable, London 1929

References

*Census Returns of England and Wales, 1911. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA), 1911. {{DEFAULTSORT:Latham, Agnes 1905 births 1996 deaths British women academics Academics of Bedford College, London British writers British women writers Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford