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Clarendon Press, Oxford.—Discusses the sizes and layout of the text.

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The Clarendon Press, Oxford
19th August 1926.

Dear Mr. McKerrow,

Thank you for your kind letter. A good share of the books pass through my hands at some stage though this one is so much in Chapman’s province that he has been primarily concerned on the editorial side.

I wholly agree with what you say about the titlepages. And further, we have proved by experiment, that the small style is the easiest of all. One can toss off any number of titlepages in it which don’t look bad, because it is not until one uses the larger and heavier sizes that faulty design becomes conspicuous. It is amazing how well one can imitate a small modern titlepage on a typewriter, whereas the smallness of a good new face titlepage is exceedingly hard to catch.

Anyhow I have had your alternative set, and think it is an improvement. According to the printer, A shows the first two lines in 18 point, as against the third in 14 point. I am frankly incredulous, but still living in a world of pica etc., I cannot contradict. But under the circumstances I have had it set again with the first two lines a size larger (style B), and I cannot help thinking that it comes nearer the effect of your drawing. Please let us have your comments and don’t hesitate to ask for something fresh. To my eye it still looks a little crowded at the head. But it is a great improvement on the first specimen. I fancy the next generation will weary of colophons and urns repeated indefinitely.

Yours truly,
Kenneth Sisam

R. B. McKerrow Esq.,
Enderley,
Little Kingshill,
Great Missenden,
Bucks.

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Typed, except signature. At the head are the reference ‘3249/K.S.’ and, elsewhere, the letters ‘MG.’

10 Chadlington Road, Oxford.—Offers to support the new journal.

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10 Chadlington Road, Oxford
Dec. 29 1923

Dear Chambers,

Chapman has just shown me a proof of a leaflet you are sending out about a new Journal of English Studies; & I see you ask for support. I should be delighted to stand in with you, & do anything I could to help. I have long wished for such a periodical, but was never in a position to bring it about.

By issuing this leaflet you start the New Year well.

Yrs ever
George Gordon

(Oxford.)—Gordon would probably join the panel, if asked.

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P 4509

28 Dec. 1923. {1}

My dear Chambers,

I spoke to Gordon—I hope this was not indiscreet, as I had already heard a good deal from Simpson and from McKerrow. I think he would go on the panel if you asked him, and I think he would be worth having. He has, I believe, a wider range than anyone—now W.P. is gone {2}—being a very good classic and a respectable medievalist as well as thoroughly at home in all the modern periods.

But please regard this as no more than a well-intentioned suggestion, which does not expect any answer.

Yours sincerely
R. W. Chapman

E. K. Chambers Esq.

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Letter-head of The Clarendon Press, Oxford. The printed address has been struck through.

{1} The first two figures of the year are printed.

{2} W. P. Ker, who died on 17 July.

(The Clarendon Press, Oxford.)—Clarifies the Press’s policy towards the new journal, and agrees to join the panel, with certain provisos. Chambers’s ‘great work’ is already being referred to as if it were a familiar work of reference.

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P 4509
28 December 1923

My dear Chambers,

Many thanks for your letter. My recollection (confirmed by my notes) is that we bade you God speed if you could secure the weight of Bradley’s name; but were afraid that if any less authoritative modernist were named as editor, the journal might look too like an unpaid duplicate of the Literary Supplement. Nor could we, though we had thought for ourselves, hit on anyone suitable who was likely to be able to give the necessary time, especially in view of the modest remuneration that we then (I think) contemplated.

I say this because I should be sorry that you or anyone should think that we would not have welcomed the enterprise with this editor and this ‘panel’. But of course I guess that this editor could not have been secured except on the terms indicated by the prospectus.

I am honoured by the invitation to join your panel, and very gladly accept it. My limitations will be understood. I could not sign any book review or survey; and it might be best that I shouldn’t review on any terms. I might, again, have to withold† interesting information, though in general I am in favour of as much publicity as possible about books in preparation. Perhaps I ought to add, ex abundante cautela, that if at any time it were desired to a[c]quaint the panel with facts which it was not desired that another publisher should know, I should of course expect to be excluded.

Subject to these limitations I shall be very glad indeed to give any help I can. Please put me down for two copies—one personal and one for the Secretary, Clarendon Press. I send you this in duplicate, that you may send McKerrow a copy if you like; and I have deposited a copy in the archives here.

I hope the reviews of the great work {1} have given you satisfaction. Not many books are referred to on publication as if they were already familiar works of reference.

Yours sincerely

E. K. Chambers Esq.,
Board of Education, London S.W.1.

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Carbon-copy of a typed original. There is no signature, though the letter is evidently from R. W. Chapman. Chambers struck through the last paragraph before sending the letter on to McKerrow.

{1} The Elizabethan Stage.

† Sic.

Board of Education.—Encloses letters from some of those invited to join the advisory panel, and suggests an alteration to the prospectus.

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Board of Education
1 Jan. 1924

Dear McKerrow,

Elton, Chapman, and Miss Morley agree to join our panel. I think you had better file and keep the letters I enclose. We are asking Gordon; are we not?

Elton’s letter partly concerns other matters, but he says

“I shall be happy to join your panel and do what I can, but could not write much, being deeply booked for some time ahead. The Review is much wanted and the idea excellent.”

I also send Bradley’s letter. Perhaps we can turn the wording of the Prospectus, when we print it off, so as to leave room for the names of those in like case. From Miss Spurgeon I have not heard yet.

Yrs sincerely
E. K. Chambers

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This letter was accompanied by letters to Chambers from Edith J. Morley, R. W. Chapman, George S. Gordon, and A. C. Bradley (MCKW A3/8b–f).

Clarendon Press, Oxford.—‘We are going on like this—mutatis mutandis as indicated.’

(This note presumably accompanied a proof.)

Clarendon Press, Oxford.—The drop in sales (of An Introduction to Bibliography?) is temporary.

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The Clarendon Press, Oxford
9:10:29

Bibliography

I am not afraid. Temporary saturation I think, no more. The sale is largely V & A & therefore oscillates because our Board orders in bulk.

RWC

Dr McKerrow

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The writing is indistinct, and the reading of some words is uncertain. The reference ‘[..]5889’ is written at the head after the printed words ‘Please quote’. 

Clarendon Press, Oxford.—Discusses the sizes of the type.

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The Clarendon Press, Oxford
30:6:26

My dear McKerrow

Mitto secundas intentiones. Do you say that the chapter-titles shd now be taken down one size? Something depends on their average length.

In this Style, 360 pages, dont {2} 84 appendix. I dont know why I am so Macaronic this morning.

Yrs
R. W. Chapman

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At the head is the reference ‘3249’. There is a tick in the bottom right-hand corner.

{1} ‘I send our second attempt’ (Lat.), i.e. probably Add. MS. a. 355/3/6.

{2} ‘of which’ (Fr.).

Clarendon Press, Oxford.—Madan has praised McKerrow’s book, and he himself has been recommending it in America.

(With an envelope.)

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The Clarendon Press, Oxford
1 November 1927

My dear McKerrow

Madan writes: ‘a really first-rate book: never runs away from difficulties’. I have just come back from America, where I impressed upon various people that the book ought to get into a fair number of American libraries, where they are apt to have departments of bibliography.

Yours sincerely
R W Chapman

R. B. McKerrow Esq.

[Direction on envelope:] R. B. McKerrow Esq. | c/o Sidgwick and Jackson | 44 Museum St | W.C.

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Typed, except the signature. At the head is the reference ‘3249’. The envelope was postmarked at Oxford at 8.30 p.m. on 1 November 1927.

Oriel College, Oxford.—Supports his idea of issuing a scholarly English journal. Refers to his own unsuccessful attempt in that direction, and makes some suggestions.

(With an envelope.)

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Oriel College, Oxford
1 Dec. 1923

Dear Dr. McKerrow

Dover Wilson writes to me of your project of issuing a scholarly English Journal. I sympathize fully with you. Some years ago I mooted here the question of an ‘Oxford Journal of English Studies’, to be conducted by the English School, the staff of the Dictionary, & the Clarendon Press. I also tried to get the English Association to move, but I failed.

I shall be glad to give any help I can, but—frankly—I dread just now taking on more work.

Wilson asks about a scholar for Middle English: R. W. Chambers, if you can get him—a scholar & a literary critic in one, as his Beowulf book & his writings on Piers Plowman show.

I have one suggestion. Undertakings of this kind always seem to me to get water-logged by the review part. Need every damned thing anybody prints—if you don’t mind my violent way of putting it—get reviewed? Could you without invidiousness select the works {1} you would review, or from time to time print short surveys of study in a particular author or a particular subject. R. W. Chambers some time wrote an excellent report of the stage which the Piers Plowman controversy had reached. {2}

Your paper would, I suppose, be quarterly; or even three times a year, leaving the summer holiday free. I should suggest for its working motto not only Ne quid nimis, but Ne quid saepius. {3}

Yours sincerely
Percy Simpson {4}

Twelve years ago Henry Bradley said of Kenneth Sisam (now at the Clarendon Press) that he was far the first of the young men working at Old & Middle English. Enlist him. I can help if you don’t know him.

Nichol Smith for the eighteenth century if you can get him: he is difficult to get hold of. And, for an occasional article, R. W. Chapman.

On Elizabethan English F. P. Wilson.

From time to time I come across some very able young men. I should like to introduce them to you occasionally.

This is a disjointed letter, but I am in bed with a cold.

PS

[Direction on envelope:] Dr. R. B. McKerrow. | Enderley | Great Missenden | Bucks.

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The envelope was postmarked at Headington, Oxford, at 2.30 p.m. on 3 December 1923.

{1} Reading uncertain.

{2} ‘The Authorship of “Piers Plowman”’, MLR, v (1910). 1–32.

{3} i.e. not only ‘nothing in excess’, but ‘nothing too often’.

{4} Followed by ‘PTO’. A page ends here.

University Press, Oxford.—The accompanying sheets confirm Chapman’s conclusion about ‘12mo in half-sheets imposed for cutting’.

(Typed except the initials. Forwarded to McKerrow with a handwritten note by Chapman.)

Clarendon Press, Oxford.—Is glad he is interested in ‘duodecimo in half-sheets’ and that he enjoyed his tract on Names. Asks to postpone the publication of his article for the Review of English Studies.

(Typed, except the signature and two corrections.)

(All unsigned.)

Welcombe, Stratford on Avon. - Thanks for the 'information about Ecology' and the account of Robert's talk with [Robert] Chapman regarding the Jane Austen emendations; thinks the reading of 'trio' for 'two' in a paragraph of "Northanger Abbey" might be Jackson's [actually Verrall's, see 12/191]. Encloses the Junior Bursar [of Trinity College, Cambridge]'s letter; likes to read of 'these hospitalities', and would like to be there 'in some one else's scarlet gown, with my own solitary Order'.

Clarendon Press, Oxford.—Discusses arrangements for reprinting, and comments on a few points in the text.

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The Clarendon Press, Oxford
20th December, 1927.

Dear Mr. McKerrow,

When your letter to Chapman came in this morning, I was just about to write to say that we had kept the type of your book standing, and I think we are justified by its send-off. It appears to be going very well as specialist books go, and I am not sure that the second edition will be so distant as you appear to think. Anyhow the type is standing, and in about three months’ time we shall probably have to decide whether to take more copies off, or to make any corrections that occur to you, and then take moulds. I hope and expect we shall take the former alternative, and in any event we should need your corrections if you have found any misprints.

I read the book again with very great interest and no criticisms. The only suggestion I would have made at an earlier stage is that the section on abbreviations might usefully have contained a few more historical indications. For the purposes of book printing, which is your strict subject, they are unnecessary; but I should like to have seen the ancient and typical contractions e.g. dñs. for dominus, distinguished by some mark (an asterisk, for instance) from the relatively modern ones alongside which they fall in books. However, this is really outside your scope, and belongs to an historical study of contractions.

I was interested in your note on the proposal to make the ream 500 sheets. My own difficulty was less that of calculation than the obvious intention of the printers to charge the same price for machining a ream, i.e. to increase the machining price by a little over 3%. As soon as I mentioned the proportionate reduction of machining charges, the demand flagged.

When I can form any proper estimate in the New Year, I shall give you some idea of the sales to date, and consult you about the policy of taking off more copies from the type. The book will obviously be used in all the schools of research in English literature.

Yours sincerely,
Kenneth Sisam

R. B. McKerrow Esq.

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Typed, except the signature and the tittle in ‘dñs’. At the head are the reference ‘5889/K.S.’ and, elsewhere, the letter ‘C.’

Clarendon Press, Oxford.—Discusses arrangements connected with the Review of English Studies (following the death of her husband).

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The Clarendon Press, Oxford
28th March, 1940.

Dear Mrs. McKerrow,

Thank you for your letter of 26th March. I am afraid I cannot answer about the offprints because the arrangements for that number were made by Miss Dowling, but I am asking her if it is possible to get any more. Both your correspondents deserve them, and I am returning the letters.

We shall continue to send you the Review of English Studies, but should not think of asking you to pay the subscription in view of your husband’s connection with the journal.

You may like to know that, after a good deal of consultation, we have decided to recommend to the Delegates that Professor Sutherland, who has still many years ahead of him but is not immediately required for war work, should be the new Editor, retaining Miss Dowling to look after the practical work which she has been accustomed to do.

A letter from your solicitors required us to make some financial proposals which perhaps they have referred to you. There is no hurry for a reply, because Dr. Chapman is still poorly, and my own household has been so disorganised by illness that I am taking my son away for about ten days’ holiday on the 2nd so as to be able to close the house. It has indeed been a harsh winter.

Yours sincerely,
Kenneth Sisam

Mrs. A. McKerrow.

ENCL. {1}

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Typed, except the signature. At the head is the reference ‘4690/K.S.’

{1} It is not clear what was enclosed.

Clarendon Press, Oxford.—Accepts the suggested title. McKerrow is to provide illustrations. Will send proofs when they can.

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The Clarendon Press, Oxford
19:5:26

Right. Bibliography for Literary Students strikes me as all right. Illustrations you will furnish. Proofs in slip—you will settle your own head-lines (!). We will (when we can) send you a page and a cast-off.

RWC

R. B. McKerrow Esq.

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At the head is the reference ‘P4894’.

(Oxford?)—Discusses the watermarks of the second edition of William King’s Oratio in Theatro Sheldoniano (1750).

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8:6:26

My dear McKerrow

Watermarks—a simple exercise.

William King’s Oratio in Theatro Sheldoniano | Second edition 1750. 4o.

[The following three lines are braced together on the right-hand side:]
Half title Title Dedication 3 leaves.
B-E in fours, pp. [1]-32.
F, pp. 33-34.

Two watermarks to the sheet, a very large one and the maker’s initials.

Doubtless F=[A4]. [A2] and [A3] have the large w/m; F has the small one, & I think I make out the rest of the small one on [A1], under the paste.

CDE are normal—one pair has one w/m, the other has the other.

B shows the small w/m twice. Why? Because B1 has a copper plate.

Doubtless B was printed on two separate half-sheets.

Yours
R. W. Chapman

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Numbers in signatures (A4, etc.) are subscript in the original. The square brackets are original.

Clarendon Press, Oxford.—Proposes terms for publishing McKerrow’s ‘Elements of Bibliography’, which he and Chapman think would make an excellent small book.

(With an envelope.)

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The Clarendon Press, Oxford
24th July, 1939.

My dear McKerrow,

Chapman and I have both had time to glance at your Lecture notes, and we think that when you have revised them as you suggest, eliminating the lecture forms, they will make an excellent small book, particularly suitable for those Library Schools in America which cannot afford the bigger book, and also for beginners at research in the Universities here.

I think the price should be 5s. The booksellers do not like very cheap books which are inevitably sold in single copies, because their working costs on them are too high, and anybody who wants them will pay 5s.

We should propose a royalty of 12½% of the United Kingdom published price on all copies sold in the United Kingdom, and 10% of the U.K. published price on all copies sold for Export or in the United States: you will know that a good deal of the U.S.A. demand does not come under this latter category, because so many copies are bought through agents or booksellers in this country.

We should supply you with 12 free copies.

Chapman thought it would be best if he raised any points of detail after you had revised the MS., as it is quite likely they will be taken up in the course of your revision.

I hope this will encourage you to get on with it. I am myself leaving on Thursday for a longish holiday in the Scilly Islands: August is a dead month with us, and I expect to be back about mid-September. I hope you will have good weather for your own holiday.

Yours sincerely,
Kenneth Sisam

Dr. R. B. McKerrow,
Picket Piece, Wendover, Bucks.

[Direction on envelope:] Dr. R. B. McKerrow | Picket Piece | Wendover | Bucks [Redirected to:] 11 Warwick Rd | Cliftonville | Margate

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Typed, except the signature. At the head is the reference ‘P.12977/K.S.’ The letter was sent by registered post, the envelope being postmarked at the Secretary’s Office, Clarendon Press, Oxford, and at Walton Street, Oxford, on 24 July 1939; at Aylesbury, Bucks, and at Wendover, Aylesbury, Bucks, on the 25th; and at Margate, Kent, on the 26th. ‘Registered’ marks were also added at Oxford and Margate.

9 Park Town, Oxford.—Asks about the format of George Lyttelton’s To the Memory of a Lady lately deceased (1747).

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5:4:28 9 Park Town, Oxford

My dear McKerrow

George Lyttelton’s To the Memory of a Lady lately deceased 1747 is to all appearances a folio in twos, my uncut copy measuring 15 x nearly 10. The chain-lines are horizontal. I cant find a w/m.

15 x 19 cant be a half-sheet, can it?

Yrs
R. W. Chapman

Clarendon Press, Oxford.—Commends McKerrow’s suggested title-page, and discusses the size of the first printing.

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The Clarendon Press, Oxford
8th August 1927.

Dear Mr. McKerrow,

Thank you for your letter of August 6th. We shall try your titlepage, and personally I think it is an improvement. One modernist tendency in titlepages is to give them the size formerly given to half titles. I understand this is based on the theory that the jacket provides the real external title,—a very false theory when applied to learned books which will in their later days require a binding. I imagine some teachers in the schools of printing have always novels in mind when they lay down their rules on construction.

As for the number—let 1,500 be the minimum. I am inclined to think that writers of theses will buy this book, and when Chapman returns I shall raise with him the question of making it 2,000 or splitting the difference. I am inclined to think the sale will be long and steady, and in that case it is all a matter of overtaking the interest charges; but we shall be well satisfied not to examine too closely into commercial profit in producing such an admirable work.

Yours sincerely,
Kenneth Sisam

R. B. McKerrow Esq.,
Enderley,
Little Kingshill,
Great Missenden,
Bucks.

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Typed, except signature. At the head are the reference ‘3249/K.S.’ and, elsewhere, the letters ‘MG.’

Clarendon Press, Oxford.—Is glad McKerrow has had a holiday. Discusses the inclusion of Vienna in the list of Latin place-names.

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The Clarendon Press, Oxford
25 July 1927

My dear McKerrow

I am glad you have had a holiday. You will find waiting for you a query from me about the number to print, {1} but if you have no decided view we will settle that as best we can. We will give you a dark blue binding. This is very much the kind of book of which we like to emphasise the Oxonianism.

As to Vienna {2}—I do not know that it is important as a Latin, i.e. an early, imprint. Books were printed there in vernacular in the 18th century, at all events. But Vienna is Latin for Vienne, and a note to that effect may save people from falling into the common trap of supposing that Vienne in an imprint is French for Vienna. There is no doubt about Vindobona, and Vindobonensis is a common occurrence in the nomenclature of MSS. I have added both.

Yours sincerely
R W Chapman

I am very glad indeed to have been of service to you.

R. B. McKerrow Esq.

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Typed, except the signature and the last sentence. At the head is the reference ‘3249’.

{1} Add. MS. a. 355/3/23.

{2} Cf. Add. MS. a. 355/3/22.

Clarendon Press, Oxford.—Discusses the price of the book and the size of the first printing.

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The Clarendon Press, Oxford
23:7:27

My dear McKerrow

1. We will send the t.p.

2. I wrote to you some days ago about the price. {1} We can’t do 12/6, & I think we may as well go to 18/-. I don’t think the difference between 16/- (or even 15/-) & 18/- will deter many.

3. And how many shall we print? I think 1500 a minimum (we shd sell 500 quickly, 50 a year for a few years, & then 30?) and 2000 a maximum.

4. I don’t think you need get a second loan for the Strike. {2}

Yours sincerely {3}
R W Chapman

R. B. McKerrow Esq.

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At the head is the reference ‘3249’.

{1} See Add. MS. a. 355/3/21.

{2} The reading of this sentence is uncertain.

{3} This word is a mere scribble.

(Oxford?)—Suggests additions to the list of Latin place-names.

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? Add
Vienna = Vienne
Vindobona = Vienna

RWC
15:7:27

R.B.Mc.K.

Clarendon Press, Oxford.—Discusses the price of the book.

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The Clarendon Press, Oxford
15:7:27

My dear McKerrow

Can you produce a view about the price? We must keep under 20/- but I am afraid 12/6 is impossible. That being so, is there anything in it as between 15/- (or 16/-) and 18/-? I guess not. It is worth 18/-.

Yrs
R W Chapman

R. B. McKerrow Esq.

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There is no reference at the head.