Online Obituaries in Memory of Kevin Sharpe (1949-2011)

• Andrew Hadfield in The Guardian
• Paul Lay in History Today
• Sarah Cunnane in Times Higher Education (THE)

I am deeply saddened to hear of Kevin's death. Our paths crossed at Warwick and at various conferences, but it was at the Huntington Library that I best remember him, always acting as (as far as I could tell) self-appointed social secretary, engineer of meetings of people he thought should know one another, and general guide and friend to Brits who were new to the place. He was always much in demand as a card-carrying historian who would actually talk to us literary types - still a rarity, perhaps, but less so since Kevin began to break that mould. He will be greatly missed.

Richard Dutton, Humanities Distinguished Professor and Chair, Department of English, Ohio State University

So shocked and saddened to hear the news. Kevin was a first-rank academic, and a pioneer in interdisciplinary studies. More importantly, he was also a modest, friendly and thoroughly decent person. Everyone I've talked to has the highest admiration for him, both as a scholar and as a human being. We will all miss him in so many ways.

David J. Appleby, Lecturer in Early Modern British History, University of Nottingham

Very sad to hear of Kevin's death. He taught me as an undergraduate and was internal examiner for my PhD at Southampton. I was (and remained!) in awe of his intellect and his larger than life personality, but valued (and will remember) his kindness, encouragement and enthusiasm.

Andrew Sawyer, Research Associate, School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester

I am immensely saddened to hear of Kevin Sharpe's sudden demise. He was without question a key player and thinker in early modern studies - one of the few that could really have his work entered as paradigm shifting in those terrible RAE reports. His richly imaginative and authoritative work has provided a constant inspiration to me, as to so many thousands of others, and I will always value the many conversations, always illuminating, that I was able to have with him since meeting him when a post-graduate at Warwick and many times since. His tongue, like his wit, was sharp and he liked nothing better than a lively exchange - he once described a group of historians as 'a spite' - but his heart was warm and he was always encouraging. If all the people he has inspired could attend a memorial service it would require several Wembleys to contain them and he would richly deserve that tribute.

Angela McShane, Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Kevin Sharpe was one of the most un-solemn people I ever met. He was my contemporary as a research student at Oxford, and I can still remember first meeting him as he rose suddenly from behind his desk in the upper reading-room of Bodley to ambush my companion David Norbrook and me, bright-eyed and conspicuously confident. Over a coffee he gave us both advice on ways of handling the sillier parts of Oxford administration and, generally, how to get on. He was always chipper, amused, passionate about the seventeenth century and the way it was in his view frequently misinterpreted. He would deviate with alarming rapidity from scholarly to personal counsel, and both discourses could always be counted on to be controversial, solicitous, completely lacking in pomposity and often hilarious. I ended up in the same Faculty as him in Southampton, and by then he was established as an unstoppably successful historian, marvellously productive and with a reputation as someone who constantly challenged wisdoms as soon as they hinted that they were becoming received. He and Jonathan Sawday were fine sparring partners, and the rest of us gratefully picked up tips from the contests. Kevin’s career always moved on a notably broad front, taking in not only the job he happened to be doing, but pulling with it a wake of research funding, collaborative projects, a stream of publications, endless plans, all composing an overall spectacle hotly pursued by other universities to whom Kevin would wave from time to time. He waved to us at QMUL, and actually changed ships for his all too short but extremely successful stay here. He gave us the same mixture of informal authority and easy prestige powering some very energetic interventions in the life of the department and faculty which were very valuable and typically inclusive. And his own brand of collegial confidences continued to flow, as supportive and amusing as ever. His advice to me this time on handling increasing age and imminent decrepitude was quite unrepeatable and extremely practical. Clearly the future was there for the taking. It is therefore desperately sad that he has been struck down like this, with so much left to give, his ability and fecundity as an historian apparently unimpeded by the interruptions of bad health and hospitalization. Until the last one, so sudden and shocking. Kevin is quite unforgettable, a man who was many-sided but always, utterly, himself, always engagingly so, and I am very glad to have known him.

Paul Hamilton, Professor of English, Department of English, Queen Mary University of London 

I met Kevin in the autumn of 2009, several months into a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at Warwick University. A mutual friend had suggested I contact him since he would be interested in my work. Not only was Kevin indeed curious to learn about my work, he was also interested in me as a person. Over the next year and a half Kevin and I kept in regular contact, chatting over a coffee at Warwick or a beer in Leamington. To my great delight, Kevin became both an academic mentor and a good friend. I will never forget going to the Sommerville Arms in Leamington Spa with Kevin to listen to local musicians perform bluegrass—the memory of him clapping and calling out loudly for a rendition of “Jesus on that Mainline” (and then singing along to it) will stay with me for the rest of my days.

Kevin’s relentless optimism and concern for my well-being was demonstrated numerous times during the final months of my time at Warwick. Facing a very difficult choice relating to my career, Kevin listened to me talk about my dilemma and offered helpful advice. He tried to make my way easier by writing letters and suggesting alternatives. He did this despite the fact that I was neither his student nor his colleague, and only temporarily living in his country.  Even after I had returned to Canada last summer, Kevin kept in touch.  I had been thinking that it was high time to phone him last month when I learned of the return of his illness.

Two and a half years ago, had someone predicted that I would become friends with one of the most important scholars of early modern English political culture of the past thirty years, I would have thought it a wild dream. It was my great honour and pleasure to be surprised by the kindness and warmth and generosity of Professor Sharpe. He will be greatly missed, and fondly remembered, for a long time by many people.

Matthew Neufeld, Lecturer, Department of History, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada