Showing 14 results

8 Macpherson Avenue, Toronto, Canada.—Asks for a specimen of the Society’s book-plate, and sends two of his own design.

(The design at the head of the paper is similar to Add. MS a. 684/1/2. The Bibliographical Society did not have a Librarian; the letter was presumably passed to R. B. McKerrow as Secretary.)

—————

Transcript

83 Macpherson Avenue, Toronto, Canada
2nd November 1918

Mr Stanley Harrod presents his compliments to the Librarian of the Bibliographical Society and begs to request that he may be favoured with one of the society’s bookplates by C. W. Sherborn.

He wishes to explain that in taking this somewhat presumptuous step he is actuated solely by a desire to possess examples of the highest attainment in this field of art, that by their study he may improve his own work. To accomplish this end he must appeal to the courtesy and generosity of the owners of the plates.

He encloses two of his own designs in the hope that they may prove of some slight interest.

St Bartholomew’s Hospital or 38 Brunswick Square, London, W.C.—Thanks him for the news of his (Keynes’s) election to the Bibliographical Society.

—————

Transcript

St Bartholomew’s Hospital, E.C.
38 Brunswick Square, London, W.C. {1}
5 December 1913

Dear Sir,

I am much obliged to you for your letter informing me that I have been elected a Candidate-Member of the Bibliographical Society. {2}

I enclose a cheque for 1 guinea, being my subscription for 1914

Yours faithfully
Geoffrey Keynes

—————

{1} Two addresses are printed at the head.

{2} ‘At its Annual Meeting in January, 1914, the Bibliographical Society resolved to re-open its Roll of Membership (to which for twenty years admission had only been obtainable as vacancies occurred), and for the rest of the twelvemonth to admit any suitable candidates who presented themselves.’ (The Library, 3rd series, x. 64.) Keynes was one of fourteen candidate-members elected by the Society’s Council on 1 December 1913. The others included Sidney Hodgson, the book auctioneer, Caroline Spurgeon, Humphrey Milford, and E. H. Dring of Quaritch. (Ex inf. Robin Myers, honorary archivist of the Bibliographical Society.)

10A Chandos Street, Cavendish Square, London, W.—Thanks him for the news of his (Power’s) election to the Bibliographical Society.

—————

Transcript

10A Chandos Street, Cavendish Square, W.

Dear Sir

Very many thanks for your letter telling me of my election to the Bibliographical Society {1} & also for a further one about the price of a set of the Transactions. By sheer good luck I found a complete set up to date in Francis Edwards’ catalogue {2} this evening for £15.00 including the News Letter to the end of 1913 so I have bought it & stacked the volumes on my shelves.

As a present may I have the 1899 reprint of Erhard Ratdolt {3} & if its permissible the list of Corrections to the Iconography of Don Quixote? {4}

I have sent a cheque for £2.2.0 to Mr Graves. {5}

Yrs very truly
D’Arcy Power

—————

Black-edged paper. Formerly pinned to a calling-card (MCKW A1/15b), also black-edged, which was probably sent with it.

{1} Cf. MCKW A1/14. Power was among fourteen members elected on 2 March 1914; the others included Sir Sidney Lee (re-elected without a fee) and the Reform Club. (Ex inf. Robin Myers, honorary archivist of the Bibliographical Society.)

{2} Booksellers and publishers, of 83 High Street, Marylebone. The firm was founded by Francis Edwards in 1855.

{3} Gilbert R. Redgrave, Erhard Ratdolt and His Work at Venice: A Paper read before the Bibliographical Society, November 20, 1893 (1894; reprinted 1899).

{4} H. S. Ashbee, An Iconography of Don Quixote, 1605–1895 (1895). It is not clear when the corrections referred to were issued.

{5} R. E. Graves, the Society’s honorary treasurer.

Hotel Marcel(?), Andernos-les-Bains, Girande, France.—Suggests the Bibliographical Society appoint a committee to fix the terms used to describe the folding of sheets in modern books. Has a book which may shed light on 18th-century practice regarding cancels.

University of Liverpool.—Asks about rotographs of the Stationers’ Register in the possession of the Bibliographical Society.

(Typed, with handwritten additions. This appears to be a proposal for Warde’s paper ‘Type Faces, Old and New’, read before the Society on 21 January 1935, but her name does not appear on the document. See The Library, 4th series, vol. xvi, no. 2 (Sept. 1935), pp. 121–43.)

Park Lodge, Wimbledon Common, S.W.19.—Discusses conflicting evidence relating to the 17th-century printer Alice Norton.

(Dated Saturday. Letter-head of the Bibliographical Society.)

Clarendon Press, Oxford.—The Press would still like to publish R. B. McKerrow’s ‘Elements of Bibliography’ if the MS is in a suitable state, but could not, after the war, go on with the proposal to produce a new edition of Printers’ and Publishers’ Devices.

—————

Transcript

The Clarendon Press, Oxford
12th June, 1940.

Dear Mrs. McKerrow,

I am writing a separate letter about the short Bibliography. I find that we had the MS. for a short time, but returned it on 24th July 1939. {1}

When we last saw your husband he said it was in lecture form, and it would need a certain amount of revision to give it book form, not only in details of wording—in some points it would want rounding or pulling together. We agreed that Miss Walker should read through the MS. to see if your husband had in fact carried out this revision, and should report on it. We should like to go on with the work if it is ready for publication in book form, or can easily be made ready.

I explained that this would have to be a cheap book, to distinguish it from the larger book; and that we thought the royalty proposed would probably give a better result than a higher royalty on a dearer book.

Yours sincerely,
Kenneth Sisam

P.S. Perhaps I should add that I am sure the Delegates, after this war, could not go on with the proposal, which had never been more than tentative, to produce a new edition of Printers’ and Publishers’ Devices. Possibly Mr. Ferguson could persuade the Bibliographical Society to take it up when their commitments are clear, for they, with their body of subscribers, are in the best position to circulate it.

KS

Mrs. A. McKerrow,
Picket Piece, Wendover, Bucks.

—————

Typed, except signature and initials. At the head is the reference ‘4673/K.S.’, and by the postscript is ‘3985’.

{1} See Add. Ms. a. 355/6/2a-b.

10 Lauriston Road, Wimbledon.—Invites him to attend meetings of the Bibliographical Society as a guest, pending his election as a member.

(With envelope.)

—————

Transcript

10 Lauriston Road, Wimbledon
17.X.02.

Dear Sir,

Owing to the Roll of the Bibliographical Society being quite full we were unable to elect you at this month’s Council-meeting. {1} But I enclose you a card of our papers, as at present arranged, & shall be very glad if, pending your election, you can come to any of them as a guest.

faithfully yrs
Alfred W. Pollard

[Direction on envelope:] R. B. McKerrow Esqre. | 22 Friars Stile Rd. | Richmond.

—————

Letter-head of the Bibliographical Society. There is no stamp or other mark of posting on the envelope.

{1} The following statement appeared in the Bibliographical Society’s annual report, circulated in advance of the annual meeting on 15 December: ‘Early in the year the number of Candidate-Members on the Roll had already reached the permitted maximum (15), and since March the Council has only been able to make two elections. Five gentlemen actively engaged in bibliographical work are now waiting election as Candidate-Members, and it would be an advantage to the Society to secure their help.’ (Transactions, vii. 4.) McKerrow was presumably one of the five gentlemen alluded to.

25 Heath Drive, Hampstead, N.W.3.—Has offered the copyright in his Coleridge book to the Bibliographical Society. Praises McKerrow’s book, but wishes that he had included a description of the evolution of the half-title.

—————

Transcript

25 Heath Drive, Hampstead, N.W.3
4th Nov. 1927.

My dear McKerrow,

Many thanks for your letter of the 26 Oct. which afforded me much information I did not be-fore possess. I quite thought that the copyright, if any, in that Coleridge book {1} belonged to the Bibliographical Society, and I wish it did. I do not wish to own copyrights; neither do I desire that my executors should be troubled with them. I have therefore written to Pollard & offered to give to the Society the copyrights of my Catalogue & of my Bibliographies. I shall be grateful if the Society will accept them. They are probably of small use, if any; but they might be of use at some future time.

Always sinc[erel]y yours

Thos. J. Wise

I am deep in your splendid book, & I congratulate you upon the success you have achieved. I wish you had devoted a paragraph or two to the evolution of the Half-title. I have an idea regarding it.

—————

{1} Probably Wise’s Bibliography of the Writings in Prose and Verse of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, published by the Bibliographical Society in 1913; but the Society also published a supplement in 1919 under the title Coleridgeiana, and in 1927 Wise printed privately Two Lake Poets: A Catalogue of Printed Books, Manuscripts, and Autograph Letters by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge collected by Thomas James Wise.