[Milton-L] Al Labriola

[FLANNAGAN, ROY]

He was my roommate in a TA office at the University of Virginia, we both studied under the rigorous eye of Fredson Bowers, and he was one of the most active editors and scholars I have known, remaining in office as dean but not letting up on any other of his duties.  When he assumed the editorship of Milton Studies, I believe that three of Bowers's students were editing major scholarly journals on Renaissance poets (Barbara Mowat was editing the Shakespeare Quarterly).
 
Al was always a great organizer of Milton Society dinners--the publisher of the annual booklet, our genial host, and one of the funniest people on his feet that I have ever seen or heard.  He was always quietly behind the scenes, patient and humble in his citizenship.  He also helped organize the very first International Milton Symposium, and he held many large and small conferences at Duquesne (it was nice to hear Annabel Patterson and William B. Hunter skirmishing about whether Milton was Anglican, at one of the Eastern Milton Symposia).
 
I loved Al dearly, and I am glad he died in harness, with all his faculties around him, at the height of his successes.  We will do the honors for him on the list, in our encomia.
 
Roy Flannagan
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