O.B. Hardison Jr.; Renaissance Literature Scholar

O.B. Hardison Jr., 61, a leading scholar of Renaissance literature and former director of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington. Hardison, who was a professor at Georgetown University at the time of his death, was head of the Folger from 1969 to 1983. He was credited with expanding the library’s manuscript and early book collections, increasing its endowment and establishing the Folger Theater Group, which specializes in productions of Shakespeare’s plays. Earlier, Hardison taught at Princeton University and the University of North Carolina. Hardison’s most recent book, published last year, was “Disappearing Through the Skylight: Culture and Technology in the Twentieth Century,” a critique of modern technological society. On Sunday in Washington of cancer.