Robert Latham (editor)

Robert Latham (1912-1995) was a British diarist, literary scholar, and civil servant, best known for his co-editing, with William Matthews, of The Diary of Samuel Pepys: A New and Complete Transcription. This edition, published between 1970 and 1983 in eleven volumes (nine of diary text, one of commentary, and one of index), is widely considered the definitive modern version of Pepys's diary.

Prior to his work on Pepys, Latham had a distinguished career in the British Civil Service, working at the Ministry of Education. He retired early to dedicate himself fully to the Pepys project.

Latham's scholarship revolutionized the understanding of Pepys's diary by providing a complete and accurate transcription of the original shorthand text. Previous editions had been abridged or sanitized. Latham and Matthews meticulously deciphered Pepys's shorthand, correcting errors and restoring passages that had been omitted. They also provided extensive annotations, contextualizing the diary entries and offering insights into 17th-century London life.

Beyond the complete transcription, Latham also made the diary accessible to a wider audience. He edited a single-volume abridgement of the diary, titled The Shorter Pepys, which became a popular introduction to Pepys's work. He also wrote Pepys, a concise biography of the diarist, and co-edited The Illustrated Pepys, providing a visual companion to the diary.

Latham’s work cemented Samuel Pepys’s place as a major figure in English literature and history. His meticulous scholarship and dedication to making Pepys's diary accessible to a broad audience have had a lasting impact.