Parrish

Stephen Maxfield Parrish, the Goldwin Smith Professor of English Emeritus at Cornell, died Jan. 11 at age 90. Parrish was a noted Wordsworth scholar and general editor of the "Cornell Wordsworth" -- a series of more than 20 published volumes that provided, for the first time, a complete and accurate record of variant readings, from Wordsworth's earliest drafts to his final lifetime (or posthumous) publication. He was also the general editor of "The Cornell Concordances" and "The Cornell Yeats," also multivolume projects.

Born June 11, 1921, in Minneapolis, Parrish earned his B.A. at the University of Illinois in 1942. He enlisted and worked in naval intelligence in World War II and the Korean War. After earning his M.A. in 1947 and Ph.D. in 1954 from Harvard University, Parrish joined Cornell's Department of English, where he taught until he retired in 1991.

He was the author, editor or co-editor of numerous other publications, including "A Concordance to the Poems of Matthew Arnold" (1959), "A Concordance to the Poems of W.B. Yeats" (1963), "The Art of the Lyrical Ballads" (1973), "Currents of the '90s in Boston and London" (1987) and "Coleridge's Dejection" (1988).

Parrish was predeceased by his first wife, Jean Jacob Parrish, and second wife, Priscilla Alden Keifer Baker-Carr Parrish; he is survived by two daughters, six grandchildren and other family members.

A memorial service is planned for June 2 at 2 p.m. at the Ithaca Friends Meeting House on Third and Madison streets, Ithaca, NY. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Cornell Library.