Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1912-1957 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
80 items, in 6 folders
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Ronald Brunlees McKerrow was born in Putney in 1872, the son of a civil engineer, and was educated at Harrow, King’s College, London, and Trinity College, Cambridge. After leaving university he spent three years teaching English in Tokyo before beginning a period of intense literary and bibliographical study, largely at the British Museum, two important results of which were his edition of the works of Thomas Nashe (1904-10) and his Notes on Bibliographical Evidence (1914). The latter, revised as An Introduction to Bibliography for Literary Students (1927), became a standard work. From 1914 McKerrow also gave lectures in English literature, and later bibliography, at King’s College, London. In 1917 he was appointed managing director of the publishers Sidgwick & Jackson, and this was his main occupation till his death, but he was also honorary secretary of the Bibliography Society from 1912 to 1934, editor of the Review of English Studies (which he founded) from 1925 to 1940, and editor of The Library from 1934 to 1937. In 1929 he accepted an invitation to prepare an edition of Shakespeare for the Clarendon Press, but, though he prepared a good deal of material, only a general textual introduction ever saw print.
Repository
Archival history
These letters and papers were found loose in McKerrow’s annotated copies of four of his own publications, namely The Works of Thomas Nashe (5 vols., 1904–10) (Adv. c. 25. 72–6), Notes on Bibliographical Evidence (1914) (Adv. c. 25. 77), An Introduction to Bibliography for Literary Students (1927) (Adv. c. 25. 78), and his edition of The Devil’s Charter, by Barnabe Barnes (1904) (Adv. c. 25. 79). The list below shows the items removed from each volume. In many cases there is no apparent connection between an item and the place where it was found.
Works of Nashe, vol. i, inside front cover: 3/1–2; p. 56: 1/8, 3/3–5; p. 310: 3/6
Works of Nashe, vol. ii, p. 88: 3/7–12; p. 222: 3/13
Works of Nashe, vol. iii, p. 38: 3/14; p. 72: 1/4, 1/7, 3/15–23; p. 222: 3/24
Works of Nashe, vol. iv, p. 174: 1/1, 3/25–7; p. 454: 1/10
Works of Nashe, vol. v, inside front cover: 3/28–9; p. iv: 3/30; p. 14: 3/31; p. 118: 3/32; p. 152: 1/5–6, 1/9, 3/33–6; p. 196: 1/3; p. 198: 1/2
Notes on Bibliographical Evidence, inside front cover: 4/1–2; before p. 1: 4/3; p. 34: 4/4; p. 40: 4/5; p. 100+1 (interleaved): 4/6
Introduction to Bibliography, p. iv: 5/1; p. vi: 2/4–5, 2/7, 2/9, 5/2–3; p. 34: 2/1–3, 2/6; p. 42: 5/4; p. 44: 5/5; p. 84: 5/6; p. 130: 5/7; p. 170: 5/8; p. 260: 2/8, 5/9; p. 276: 2/3
The Devil’s Charter, p. x: 6/1–2; p. 4: 6/3–4; p. 36: 6/5–6; p. 44: 6/7–9; p. 116: 6/10
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
These letters and papers in this group all relate either to the works from which they were removed or to similar literary and bibliographical subjects.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
The letters, which were all removed from either the Works of Nashe or Notes on Bibliographical Evidence, have been separated from the other papers and arranged in two files (Add. MS a. 457/1–2). Within each of these files the items are arranged in chronological order. The remaining papers have been divided into four files corresponding to the four works from they were removed (Add. MS a. 457/3–6). Within each of these files the items are arranged in the order in which they were found. No specific dates have been assigned to them; indeed, very few are dated. The earliest dated item among them is from 1903.
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
The printed books from which the present papers were removed are Adv. c. 25. 72–82. The main series of McKerrow’s papers is catalogued under the reference MCKW, and other of McKerrow’s papers are catalogued as Add. Ms. a. 355 and Add. Ms. a. 460.
Notes area
Alternative identifier(s)
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Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
In descriptions of ‘extent and medium’, a ‘single sheet’ is a single unfolded leaf of paper comprising 2 pages; a ‘folded sheet’ is a sheet of paper folded once, comprising 2 leaves and 4 pages.
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
This catalogue was compiled by A. C. Green in 2007.