Mary Louise Lord received her Ph.D. in Classics from Cornell University, and enjoyed a long and distinguished career teaching at Bates College, Wellesley College, Boston University, and Connecticut College, where she served as Chair of Classics for many years. She was a highly respected specialist on fourteenth-century commentators on Virgil, and contributed monographs on Nicholas Trevet, Zono de Magnali, and Benvenuto da Imala. Primarily a Latinist, Professor Lord also wrote on oral tradition and the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, as well as completed and edited her husband Albert Lord’s posthumous book, The Singer Resumes the Tale.