Our friend and long-time EBS member Mary-Jo Arn died in Dorchester, MA, the week before last. The circumstances remain unclear. According to reports, she was on her way to the library (the best place for scholars to be) when she was hit by a car (or fell?) though she sustained no bruises or broken bones. Recently, she had made a remarkable recovery from a stroke that, however, had impaired her eyesight which may have been a factor. The fall caused an inoperable brain bleed.

I remember Mary-Jo from meetings of the Medieval Club of NY, the Medieval Academy, the York Medieval Conference, Kalamazoo, and Early Book Society conferences and meetings. She was a leading expert on the poetry and texts of Charles d’Orléans and published a volume in the EBS series Texts & Transitions, The Poet’s Notebook: The Personal Manuscripts of Charles d’ Orléans (Paris, BnF, MS fr. 25458) in 2008, which received positive reviews in Speculum, Philological Quarterly, and Medium Aevum, among others. We also remember her work as Reviews Editor at Speculum. Mary-Jo had just received her copy of the new Oxford Chaucer edition to which she had spent many years contributing and had started on a new research project. Dorothy Africa wrote, “We are all sad to lose our friend and gifted scholar, but I am thankful that she left us on a personal high point with an ambitious research project before her.” I await information on a charity or not-for-profit to which donations might be made in her memory, and I wish to thank Dorothy Africa and Jenna Mead for contacting me.

Martha Driver