16 Newton Road, Cambridge.—When she wrote to Arthur Mizener to thank him for trying to help Kate [her daughter] get a post-graduate year at Cornell, she suggested that he might make an offer for Smith’s set of Scrutiny for the university. Cornell have now obtained one, at a high price, but Mizener suggests that other American universities will want a set. Suggests various means of advertising the set, without going through D[eighton] Bell, who would probably charge commission. Kingsford advises that the Syndics of the CUP have agreed to reprint Scrutiny complete. ‘I never thought we should live to see ourselves respectable, did you? but now it looks as though we shall all die in the odour of sanctity (from the Eng. Lit. Establishment point of view). Of course H. S. Bennett is retired from being a Syndic now; I daresay when the news percolates through the university there will be several deaths from violent emotion. Tillyard is said to be v. tottery & gaga anyway.’ Mizener found one other complete set of Scrutiny in the possession of the Treasurer of Lloyds Bank, but discovered that even an offer to buy it would be taken as an insult. Reminds Smith to send the essay he was going to let Frank [her husband] forward to Sewanee Review. Is busy house-hunting, as Frank retires in a year. ‘How handy the Nobel Prize money would come—I often think that the Nobel Prize for Literature has many times been awarded for far less services to literature than Frank’s.’ Refers to Frank’s letter [1/51], and urges Smith to collect and publish his essays.
Carbon typescript. Title continues, "(Appendix to H.S.B.'s Recollections)," and covers her life up to the point of leaving Girton College.
Bennett, Joan (1896-1986), née Frankau, literary scholar
Standlands, River, Petworth, Sussex.—Refers to his catalogue of English manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College (see O.11.5), and to his plan—long since abandoned—of compiling a corpus of all English manuscript works down to 1500.
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Transcript
Standlands, River, Petworth, Sussex
25 Sept. 1944
Dear Bennett
When I drew up that catalogue of 100 English MSS at Trinity, at the time I was librarian, I naturally hoped that the College might see its way to print it. Then came the last war and any idea of the sort had of course to be abandoned. By the time things settled down again I was busy in other fields, and moreover the catalogue I knew had become in some respects out of date. Had I examined it I should probably also have found it unsatisfactory. So I did no more about it and finally deposited the MS in the Library for the use of any one who might be interested. I need hardly say that it is at the disposal of you or of any body else who should be able to use it as a basis for further work.
During the last war I dreamed of compiling a corpus of all English manuscript works down to 1500. It would have been a big undertaking. I estimated, on a very rough basis, that there [are] some 5000 MSS surviving, exclusive of legal and diplomatic documents, private letters, and collections of recipes. I envisaged the work in three parts. (1) A catalogue, possibly roughly chronological, of the actuall† MSS, with full bibliographical descriptions, giving particular attention to the make-up and growth of the MSS when these were not written all at one time. (2) A catalogue of the works they contained, giving the MSS of each and such information as was possible concerning the relation of the MSS. (3) An atlas containing some hundreds of facsimiles of pages from the manuscripts, especially the dated or datable ones, with transcripts and palaeographical notes. I also had in mind a catalogue of all works to 1500 giving a brief literary account of each with and† specimen of some 50 lines transcribed exactly from the oldest or most authentic MS. An ambitious project! which I need not say I have long since abandoned.
Best wishes
Yours
W. W. Greg
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Marked at the head in pencil, ‘Letter to H S Bennett, Emmanuel College, given by H S Bennett to Trinity College Library.’