Edith Rickert

Who was Edith Rickert?

Edith Rickert was an influential medieval scholar at the University of Chicago, whose foundational work includes the Chaucer Life-Records and the eight-volume "Text of the Canterbury Tales.

Rickert's name and achievements are inextricably linked with those of John M. Manly. Close colleagues and collaborators for some 40 years at the University of Chicago, they worked jointly on the Chaucer Life-Records and the Text of the Canterbury Tales, which took sixteen years to complete, the first volume of which Rickert did not live to see published. Manly, president of the Modern Language Association of America and later of the Medieval Academy of America, was posthumously recognized by being awarded such honors as the Haskins Medal for his work on the Chaucer manuscripts. Rickert, however, was eclipsed by Manly's shadow and is only now beginning to receive her the recognition she deserves.