Verdel Kolve

Verdel Amos Kolve (January 18, 1934 – November 5, 2022) was an American academic who was an honorary fellow at St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford and a professor of English.¹

Verdel was born in Wisconsin in 1934 to Amos and Gunda Kolve. He had a younger sister, Lois.² Kolve gained his first degree at the University of Wisconsin, following which he went to Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar in 1955, studying at Jesus College. He stayed on as a post graduate and was supervised by J. R. R. Tolkien.¹

In 1966 he published The Play Called Corpus Christi (London: Arnold) in which he looked at a range of mystery plays – drawn from the York Cycle, Chester Cycle, Towneley cycle and the misnamed "Coventry Cycle".³ In 1968 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.⁴

Verdel died on November 5, 2022, at the age of 88.⁵⁶