From Tony Long
I am deeply saddened by the news of Sarah’s death. We had known one another for almost fifty years, and I was eagerly looking forward to connecting with her in St Andrews as soon as travel from the USA became possible again. Through her initiative I had been invited to give a public lecture for a general audience, rescheduled now to March 2022. Our most recent encounter took place online last year when, at her request, I sent her detailed comments on her new book, Plato’s Sun-like Good. Like all her work, it is remarkable for its freshness and incisiveness. It will stimulate discussion for a very long time.
We first met when Sarah gave a paper on justice in the Republic at a meeting of the Northern Society for Ancient Philosophy in the spring of 1965 at the University of Nottingham. I don’t now recall the details of her argument, but it struck me at the time as the best talk on ancient philosophy I had ever heard, even by comparison with the likes of Gwil Owen and Bernard Williams. I came to know her closely with Frederick, when I visited the University of Edinburgh. In 1984, shortly after I left Liverpool for Berkeley, Sarah called to discuss her job offer at Austin, Texas. I encouraged her to accept it, as she did. I did not see her then, but our friendship grew strong when I visited Princeton, where she moved soon after, and on her visits to Berkeley, where we were very eager to hire her.
She was an outstanding interlocutor, formidable in her intelligence but utterly unpretentious and kindly. I will always treasure her smile and sense of humour. Her books are a wonderful legacy for everyone, and to those fortunate to know her as a friend she leaves memories of an outstandingly good and special person. Her passing makes the tribute of essays, just published in Sarah’s honour by Ursula Coope and Barbara Sattler (Ancient Ethics and the Natural World) especially poignant.
Farewell, Sarah! I will always miss you.
Tony Long