Edward B. Irving (1923-1998), was a professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania from 1960 to 1993. He also taught at Yale University. He specialized in medieval literature, but could lecture on a variety of topics from Shakespeare to James Joyce. He was a member of both the Medieval Academy of America and the Modern Language Association of America. He published several books, among them An Introduction to Beowulf which was included in Prentice-Halls’ Landmarks in Literature series in 1969, Reading Beowulf published in 1968, and Rereading Beowulf published in 1989. In addition, he co-edited Old English Studies in Honor of John C. Pope. The items in this collection span most, if not all, of Irving's academic career. They were donated to both the Medieval Institute and Special Collections at Western Michigan University by Edward Irving's wife, Dr. Judith Moffett, after his death in 1998. The collection includes class lectures and notes, articles on critical studies of medieval literature, typescript chapters of Irving's books with revision notes, as well as other media such as LPs, cassette tapes and floppy disks. There are also donated books associated with this collection, which have been cataloged separately and are searchable via the WMU libraries online catalog. These include books on Chaucer, Piers Plowman, and Beowulf, the series Anglo-Saxon England through volume 25, in addition to interpretive books on Old English literature.