Talk:R. W. Southern

Knighthood

The "about the author" text in my copy of Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages says Southern was knighted in 1975. A Google search for "richard southern" + knighted suggests that 1974 is probably the correct date, but I'm not sure how independent the various sources are. Can anyone reference the original documents - the Queen's Honours list or whatever it might be? --Jim Henry | Talk 16:30, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

A different Richard Southern

...is apparently a theatre historian, whose bibliography appears here. I'm seeking information about this latter individual, but whether or not he's notable enough for his own page, a disambiguation seems in order. At present I'm suggesting this page be moved to Richard W. Southern (as in the French Wikipedia) but not taking action yet. -- Deborahjay (talk) 08:34, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

Ref Desk responses:

The Library of Congress authority file (official site here, but more easily searchable via WorldCat), also recognises these authors as two different people:

• Southern, Richard (lccn-n50-21642) is the theatre historian.
• Southern, R. W. (Richard William), 1912- (lccn-n50-21643) is the mediaevalist.

WorldCat lists one library holding about the theatre historian: the Richard Southern Print Collection at Bristol whose website you already linked to. The Bristol website includes a biography and reproduces an obituary from The Independent. Searching LexisNexis for August 1989 also finds obituaries that were published in the The Times (4 August) and The Guardian (7 August), so it looks like there's enough source material for a short article on him. EALacey (talk) 10:03, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

I'm of the opinion that titles of articles about authors should reflect the names that they used on their publications (cf. C. S. Lewis, T. S. Eliot, H. G. Wells). Since the medievalist invariably published as "R. W. Southern," I'd recommend moving Richard Southern over the redirect at R. W. Southern. Then an article about the other guy could be created at "Richard Southern" (if it's determined that he's notable), and hatnotes could be added for cross-referencing. Deor (talk) 14:12, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

Follow-up response to Ref Desk discussion:

I think R. W. Southern would be the best name. There are 41 books under that name at my university library, and even the popular bookstore has him listed as R. W. Adam Bishop (talk) 11:56, 27 June 2009 (UTC)

Responding 7 years later, wanted to leave a note to say I'm grateful for this discussion as I just found myself wondering about the very same question. In theatre studies and Shakespeare studies, the theatre historian is a major figure. The Seven Ages of the Theatre, The Medieval Theatre in the Round, and The Staging of Plays before Shakespeare are all major works. He'd certainly merit an article. NB: I rather assumed that the article hadn't yet been written, as didn't know he was a designer as well as a historian. Have ammended the lede in this article to clarify that Richard Southern (theatre designer) is the historian of medieval theatre as well.  • DP •  ^{huh?} 00:38, 16 August 2016 (UTC)

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