Item 30 - Letter from Otto Skutsch to N. V. H. Symons

1 sheet

Department of Latin, University College, London.—Seeks his support for the publication of a collected edition of A. E. Housman’s articles.

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Transcript

University College London, Gower Street, WC1
Department of Latin
15th December, 1960.

Dear Mr. Symons,

You may remember that in my Memorial speech on AEH I expressed the hope that his explicit wish that his writings should not be collected would one day be set aside. The reasons for your uncle’s wish are stated by Mr Gow, and by providing an index to the articles he admits that it runs counter to the needs of scholarship. The index, however, is not a satisfactory substitute. All over the world scholars need these writings, and only in a few places are the journals containing them available. The copyright of the articles is considered to be vested in the editors, and a preliminary enquiry with the editors of the Classical Review and the Classical Quarterly has brought the reply that they would not only permit but positively welcome the publication of the articles. When journals cease to exist, as e.g. the Classical Journal has done, the copyright, I believe, returns to the heirs. I am therefore writing to you to ask what your own views are, and whom, apart from you, I should approach.

I may say that this is merely exploratory. No editorial committee has been formed, and I myself may in the end not be associated with the venture at all. But because of my speech I seem to have become for the moment the centre at which the voices of those who want and need this publication are gathered, and I have therefore decided that it is for me to put before you and whomever you suggest our point of view. It is that scholarship needs these writings; that they are so distinguished also in their style that they should not be withheld; and that the reasons for your uncle’s wish are not valid. No scholars wants to be judged in the light of his earlier publications. Nevertheless the writings of great scholars are generally collected, and every person whose judgement is worth while understands that the author in his maturity would not have approved everything he had ever written. Perhaps the special circumstances in this case could be stated in a dignified manner either in an English preface or in a prefatory Latin poem.

I should be most grateful for an expression of your views.

Yours sincerely,
O. Skutsch.

N. V. H. Symons, Esq.,
Lymington, Hants.

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Typed, except the signature and a correction.

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