Professor Helen Vendler (1933-2024)

It is with great regret that the College has learned of the death of Professor Helen Vendler, Honorary Fellow, who died on 23 April 2024 at the age of ninety.

Widely regarded as America’s foremost poetry critic, Professor Vendler was the Parnell Fellow in 1994-95. During that year she played a particularly active part in the life of the College and always maintained that her seminal work on Yeats originated in her time at Magdalene. She was elected an Honorary Fellow in 1996, when the College Magazine described her as “a star in the international firmament”.

The Master, Sir Christopher Greenwood, said: "Helen Vendler was a towering figure in the world of letters and it is a matter of great pride that she was the first woman to be elected an Honorary Fellow of Magdalene. I am pleased that she lived long enough to see her portrait placed in the Hall. Her speech on that occasion will long be remembered.”

One of her last public engagements was to take part in an online ceremony to mark the unveiling in Hall of Mary Minifie’s portrait of her. In her remarks on that occasion, she described her happiness during her time in Magdalene as both “warmly personal” and “profoundly intellectual”. She will be greatly missed.