Item 36 - Letter from John Carter to N. V. H. Symons

1 sheet

26 Carlyle Square, London, SW3.—Suggests dividing the A. E. Housman letters in his possession between University College, London, and Trinity College, Cambridge.

(A note of Symons’ reply indicates his approval of the suggestion.)

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Transcript

26 Carlyle Square, London, SW3
19th January 1961

Dear Symons

The Housman Letters.

I have little doubt that Trinity, Cambridge, would accept them if they were offered, and so I daresay for the matter of that would St. John’s College, Oxford: even the stuffiest of librarians would not look this gift horse in the mouth. I was more concerned with the question which institution has best de-served the offer by showing some signs of interest, if not enthusiasm, in the past. Gow has always been rather crusty and uncooperative in these matters, and Trinity library has never made any attempt to improve its representation of AEH’s published works. It is true that the letters to Mrs Symons date from the Cambridge period, but those to his step-mother are all much earlier; so that if the balance of appropriateness of site is evenly divided my own feeling was that the decision should come down in favour of the institution that had done something to deserve the gift. A possible alternative, of course, would be to give Trinity the letters to your mother, which span the years 1911 to 1936, and to give UCL the letters to Mrs Housman, which range from 1875 to 1901. How would you feel about this?

Yours sincerely
John Carter

N. V. H. Symons, Esq. CIE, JP,

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Typed, except the initial and final greetings and the signature. The letter-head describes the writer as a Bibliographical Consultant. The last two sentences have been marked in the margin with a line and the letter ‘A’ and at the foot the recipient has written: ‘Replied 20.1.61 approving of A. N.V.H.S.’

This description was created by A. C. Green in 2023.