DOCSLIB.ORG

Download This PDF File

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Download This PDF File well illustrated. Appendix B was unfortunate- Of the two, the Oklahoma list seems to be ly misbound in the review copy, but we trust the sounder piece of work. As the foregoing this to be an error not repeated in the rest figures suggest, its proportion of cross refer- of the edition.—Rudolf Hirsch, University of ences to headings more nearly conforms to Pennsylvania Library. the terrible necessity of providing catalog ac- cess to government publications. Even more important, it avoids useless proliferation of State Author Headings headings. Author Headings for the Official Publications The Wisconsin list is unrestrained. It strives of the State of Wisconsin. By Ruth Lillian to give a heading for every subdivision of the Whitlock Jackson. Chicago: American Li- main state departments, even though, admit- brary Association, 1954. 21 lp. $5. tedly, subdivision names are seldom estab- lished by law. As a result, it provides 64 dif- Author Headings for the Official Publications ferent forms for each of two headings: WIS- of the State of Oklahoma. Compiled by Ruth CONSIN. PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION; and WIS- Fulton Cramer; revised and extended by CONSIN. STATE CONSERVATION DEPARTMENT. The Carolyn Curtis Mohr. Chicago: American heading WISCONSIN, PUBLIC SERVICE COMMIS- Library Association, 1954. ix, 114p. $3.85. SION. ADMINISTRATIVE DEPARTMENT has 21 sub- divisions. Most of them transcend the bounds Two volumes have been added to the series of cataloging propriety. What collection of of state author headings published by the state documents would ever require the head- American Library Association. Earlier lists pro- ing WISCONSIN. PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION. AD- vide headings for Alabama (Markley), Loui- MINISTRATION DEPARTMENT. INFORMATION DE- siana (Foote) and Wyoming (Fischer). Like PARTMENT. MAIN OFFICE SECTION? As a prac- the Markley volume, the new additions are tical matter, few libraries use corporate en- based on theses for the master's degree at the tries in more than three parts unless they University of Illinois Library School. Despite want the heading to wag the card. its belated publication, the Wisconsin list was The compilers of the Oklahoma list wisely the first such compilation to be undertaken chose to exclude headings for "temporary at the school in 1941. bodies appointed to complete a specific func- The theoretical utility of listing author head- tion, as construction of a building, where no ings for official state publications lies in the publications were issued and the agency ob- difficulty of determining the legal form of an viously no longer functions" (p. vi). In the agency name. The compiler of such a list Wisconsin list one finds: seeks to establish agency names authoritative- ly by systematically combing state laws, blue WISCONSIN. AGENT TO PROCURE A BLOCK OF books, bibliographies of state publications, MARBLE OR GRANITE TO BE PLACED IN THE and similar sources. Any cataloger who has NATIONAL MONUMENT AT THE CITY OF scanned the fine print of session laws to verify WASHINGTON. the name of a minor state agency can appre- WISCONSIN. BOARD TO HEAR, TRY AND DETER- ciate the boon of having the task done for MINE COMPLAINTS REGARDING THE FAILURE him. Reference librarians, too, will find use OF RAILROADS TO MAKE CONNECTIONS AT for such tools in their own work. JUNCTIONAL POINTS WITHIN THIS STATE. The Wisconsin list covers agencies of the WISCONSIN. COMMISSIONERS TO PROCURE TO BE territorial government from 1836 to 1848 and PUBLISHED SO MUCH OF THE DOCUMENTARY the state government from 1848 to 1951. It of- HISTORY OF THIS STATE AS HAD BEEN PRE- fers about 1,000 author headings together with PARED FOR PUBLICATION BY WILLIAM R. some 1,500 cross references. The Oklahoma list SMITH. covers agencies of the territorial government We learn that the governor was the block- from 1890 to 1907 and the state government buying agent, that Mr. Smith's book was in from 1907 to 1953. It gives some 444 author fact published, but there is nothing to re- headings with approximately 1,270 cross ref- veal whether train service was ever improved. erences. Both lists include numerous see-also All this makes charming reading, but it seems references. unlikely that these fleeting agencies would MAY, 1956 273 have issued publications under such top-heavy lectures supplement the author's History of designations. the Cambridge University Press (1921) where This raises the practical point: do such lists the material on early publishing lacked the really make a contribution, or are they mere- information provided by manuscripts since ly the by-products of "busy work"? It may be discovered and where the material on modern argued that even if they are in the latter cat- publishing was, with proper delicacy, subor- egory, theresults are possibly useful and should dinated. Thus, the earlier book discusses works be made available. All well and good, but part published or printed at the beginning of the of the $5.00 price tag on the Wisconsin list eighteenth century with occasional references is due to the padding-out of headings. Each to the curators' minute-books; in the present library must assess the value of these lists for volume, cash accounts are analyzed to show itself, weighing the advantages against the production costs. The "sad story of the pub- drawbacks. Librarians need not be reminded lication of the Suidas Lexicon" (1705), in that, an Oklahoma heading to the contrary, which, unwillingly, "the Curators were for the there is no Santa Claus Commission.—John first time faced with the problems and respon- Rather, School of Library Service, Columbia sibilities of a publisher," is here told in de- University. tail. The master of Pembroke then turns to the nineteenth century, discussing efforts to main- Cambridge Publishing tain the press on a profitable basis before con- The Evolution of Cambridge Publishing. By sidering the important publication projects: S. C. Roberts. New York: Cambridge Uni- Arabia Deserta, the Revised Version, the Pitt versity Press, 1956. 67 p. $2.75. Press series of textbooks, the Cambridge Mod- ern History, and lesser works. These are re- Unlike the editors of Webster's Collegiate viewed in a rather cursory fashion; no at- Dictionary, those Cantabrigians who guide the tempt is made to supply detailed information Sandars Lectures in Bibliography are well about production costs, number of copies aware that bibliography is neither confined sold, or even the editorial policies. Instead, to the history or description of books and emphasis is placed upon the growth of the manuscripts, nor to lists of writings. During publishing business conducted by the press, the past decade, this distinguished lecture ser- citing changes in organization as well as in ies has offered sound and varied fare, in- kinds of books published. cluding studies of manuscripts, incunabula, The final lecture describes "a few, only a and the book trade as well as John Carter's few, features of the development of Cambridge penetrating comments on tendencies in book printing and publishing in the present cen- collecting. The Evolution of Cambridge Pub- tury." But the few chosen are probably the lishing, the latest to be published, again re- most interesting: the syndics' experience with minds us of this breadth of interest, for it an American promoter in the publication of concerns the history of publishing rather than the eleventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Bri- the history of books. tannica, the typographical renaissance under Although the university press at Cambridge Bruce Rogers and Stanley Morison, and the has printed books since the sixteenth century, success of the press in publishing textbooks its publishing activities are fairly recent. In as well as occasional best-sellers. When one this volume of the Sandars Lectures for 1954, remembers that, during part of this period, S. C. Roberts, master of Pembroke College the author was secretary to the syndics, it is and formerly secretary to the syndics of the disappointing to find comparatively little press, presents a broad survey of publishing new information. A less objective, more per- at Cambridge. Each of the three lectures is sonal approach might have provided a bet- devoted to a particularly important period: ter insight into the evolution of Cambridge the revival of the press under Richard Bent- publishing at that time. However, now that ley about 1700, the increased attention to this study has been completed, it is to be publishing in the second half of the nine- hoped that an autobiographical account will teenth century, and some significant develop- be prepared. Certainly there is much more to ments of the twentieth century. The first two tell. 274 C( .LEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Copyrighted Material
    1 A Guide for the Perplexed HIS is a book about how to look at written and printed words, not as Ttexts, but as processes of communication in which meaning is made through the relationship between signs, structures, and materials. It has been written to complement the use of Gaskell, and to expand on those areas that were not covered in his book.1 In the following pages, the intention is both to explain the methods and processes that are used to describe and study early printed books and manuscripts, and to situate that understanding in a scholarly context in order that the insights so derived might be fruitfully employed. The focus will shift from broader narratives about the methods and ideas employed in bibliographical study to specific details and examples that serve to make a more general point. The illustrations have been chosen, where possible, with an eye to freshness. The hope is that those who wish to read this will be able to look at a book or manuscript and study the way in which it was made, the processes through which it may have evolved, and its history as reflected through the archival records as well as the evidence of its use. I When we look at the handwriting of someone that we do not know, we form an impression of their personality from their ‘character’. We may not do so consciously, but we sense handwriting to be unique and revealing. We perceive whether the script is open or tight; whether the forms are regular and disciplined, or whether majuscules and miniscules are mixed together.
    [Show full text]
  • Sandars Lectures 2007: Conversations with Maps
    SANDARS LECTURES 2007: CONVERSATIONS WITH MAPS Sarah Tyacke CB Lecture III: There are maps and there are maps – motives, markets and users As Christian Jacob put it ‘There are maps and there are maps’. More prosaically the nature of them depends on what you want the map or chart for and how you the reader perceive it? This third lecture is about what drove the cartographic activity internally and externally and how did it manifest itself in England and the rest of maritime Europe through its distributors, patrons and readers. This is probably the most challenging subject, first articulated in embryonic form as part of the history of cartography’s remit in the 1970s by David Woodward (as we saw in lecture I) and developed thereafter as the history of cartography took a ‘second turn’ and embraced social context. This ‘second turn’ challenged the inevitability of progress in cartography and understood that cartography was just as much a product of its society as other texts. In the case of Brian Harley he took this further arguing powerfully, from the examples he found, that in the early modern period with the rise of the nation state and European expansion ‘cartography was primarily a form of political discourse concerned with the acquisition and maintenance of power’ ( Imago Mundi 1988, 40 pp. 57-76). One might say the same of archives and libraries which spent (and do spend) their time ordering knowledge in the shape of books and manuscripts. In the case of a National Archives there is a clear explicit connection between the state and the archive; but even here within the archive and within the map there are other human elements at work as well, even subversive at least when it comes to interpreting them.
    [Show full text]
  • © in This Web Service Cambridge University Press
    Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-75762-1 - Bibliographical Analysis: A Historical Introduction G. Thomas Tanselle Index More information Index Abbott, Craig S., 58 books, 6–14, 48–52; of 16th- and Agüera y Arcas, Blaise, 106 17th-century books, 15–28, 31–47; of Ames, Joseph, 8–9 18th-century books, 52–56, 79–80, 82–84; Amory, Hugh, 96 of 19th- and 20th-century books, 56–59, analytical bibliography. See bibliographical 84–85. See also book design; compositor analysis study; presswork study Anisson, Jean, 69, 110 bibliographical description, 93, 104, 159; Apollinaire, Guillaume, 66 collation formula in, 14, 91; definition artifacts, 2, 7, 30, 89; visual attributes of, of, 3, 4, 19, 46, 56, 104; title-page 61–62, 63, 66–68 transcription in, 89, 91 attribution of authorship, 98, 158 Bibliographical Society [London], 5, 17, 18, Austen, Jane, 105 19, 20–21, 22, 76, 89, 91, 92, 108; founding of, 11–12 Babbage, Charles H., 110 Bibliographical Society of America, 80 Bain, D. C., 105 Bibliographical Society of the University of Bain, Peter, 113 Virginia, 93 Bald, R. C., 25–26, 95 Bill, Max, 113 Ball, Douglas, 112 bindings, 4; custom, 87, 101, 112, 157; Barker, Nicolas, 57, 78, 79–80, 81, publishers’, 57, 87, 107, 112, 157. See also 108, 111, 114 bookmaking Barthes, Roland, 74 Blades, William, 7, 9–10, 12, 13, 89, 90 Baskerville, John, 55 Bland, David, 112 Bayfield, M. A., 98 Blayney, Peter W. M., 29, 35–36, 41, 46, 100, bearer type, 105, 156 101, 103 Beaumont, Francis, 98, 102 blind impressions, 105, 156 Beinecke Library, 114 Bloch, Marc, 108 Belanger, Terry, 94 Bloomfield, Paul, 110 Bennet, Thomas, 8, 89 Bodley Head, 85 Benton, Megan L., 86 Bond, W.
    [Show full text]
  • Digital Scholarly Editing Theories and Practices
    Digital Scholarly Editing Theories and Practices EDITED BY MATTHEW JAMES DRISCOLL AND ELENA PIERAZZO To access digital resources including: blog posts videos online appendices and to purchase copies of this book in: hardback paperback ebook editions Go to: https://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/483 Open Book Publishers is a non-profit independent initiative. We rely on sales and donations to continue publishing high-quality academic works. Digital Scholarly Editing Theories and Practices Edited by Matthew James Driscoll and Elena Pierazzo https://www.openbookpublishers.com © 2016 Matthew James Driscoll and Elena Pierazzo. Copyright of each individual chapter is maintained by the authors. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the text; to adapt the text and to make commercial use of the text providing attribution is made to the authors (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information: Matthew James Driscoll and Elena Pierazzo (eds.), Digital Scholarly Editing: Theories and Practices. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/ OBP.0095 In order to access detailed and updated information on the license, please visit https:// www.openbookpublishers.com/isbn/9781783742387#copyright Further details about CC BY licenses are available at https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/ All external links were active on 26/7/2016 unless otherwise stated and have been archived via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine at https://archive.org/web Updated digital material and resources associated with this volume are available at https://www.openbookpublishers.com/isbn/9781783742387#resources Every effort has been made to identify and contact copyright holders and any omission or error will be corrected if notification is made to the publisher.
    [Show full text]
  • Sandarslecture 1Revisednov07
    SANDARS LECTURES 2007: CONVERSATIONS WITH MAPS SARAH TYACKE CB LECTURE 1: ‘T HEN AND NOW’ - RECENT VIEWS OF MAPPING IN THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD Introduction I was somewhat surprised, but pleased, to be asked to give the Sandars Lectures as I had always understood them to be about bibliography and matters to do with the book ‘and the arts relating thereto.’ I checked to see if anyone had ever spoken about maps. Although I recognised some famous names that have been influential in the history of cartography, like Don McKenzie with his seminal work, Bibliography and the Sociology of Texts (London, c.1986), I could find nothing about maps themselves. I am therefore very grateful to the Electors of the Sandars Readership in Bibliography, for their confidence in asking a historian of maps to deliver the Sandars lectures for 2007. I hope I may fulfil their expectations. I should also say that my present research has been enhanced by the award of a Leverhulme Emeritus research fellowship for two years. I have chosen as my theme an all encompassing title, ‘Conversations with maps: world views in early modern Europe’. This enables me to range over modern debate and dispute about the period and its cartography, to consider maps as vehicles of communication of geographical and other knowledge transfer, and, of course, as objects of delight; I intend also to consider their production and dissemination and to consider their very different categories of users and wider audiences. The all- encompassing theme also allows me to fulfil one of the requirements made by the founder of the lectures, Samuel Sandars who wished the lectures to be based on the University’s collections.
    [Show full text]
  • Time and the Bibliographer: a Meditation on the Spirit of Book Studies
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Faculty Publications -- Department of English English, Department of Spring 2020 Time and the Bibliographer: A Meditation on the Spirit of Book Studies Matt Cohen Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/englishfacpubs Part of the Comparative Literature Commons, English Language and Literature Commons, Modern Literature Commons, and the Reading and Language Commons This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the English, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications -- Department of English by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Time and the Bibliographer A Meditation on the Spirit of Book Studies Matt Cohen Abstract In light of the global return of tribalism, racism, nationalism, and religious hypocrisy to power’s center stage, it is worth returning to the question of the relevance of bibliography. It is a time when, at least at the seats of power in the United States and some other places, books seem to have become almost meaningless. Bibliographic pioneer D.F. McKenzie’s strategy was not to constrain bibliography in self-defense, but to expand it, to go on the offense. What is our course? This essay explores bibliography’s past in order to suggest ways in which it can gain from an engagement with the methods and motivating concerns of Indigenous studies. The study of books has often functioned within a colonialist set of assumptions about its means and its ends, but at the same time, having been at times in something of a marginalized position themselves in their professions, its practitioners have developed unique tools, passions, and intellectual focuses with decolonial potential.
    [Show full text]
  • A Short History of English Printing : 1476-1900
    J \ Books about Books Edited by A. W. Pollard A Short History of English Printing BOOKS ABOUT BOOKS Edited bv A. W. POLLARD POPULAR RE-ISSUE BOOKS IN MANUSCRIPT. By Falconer Madan, Bodley's Librarian, Oxford. THE BINDING OF BOOKS. By H. P. HORNE. A SHORT HISTORY OF ENGLISH PRINTING. By II. K. Plomer. EARLY ILLUSTRATED BOOKS. By A. W. POLI.ARD. Other volumes in pi-eparatioit. A Short History of English Printing 1476-1900 By Henry R. Plomer London Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibncr & Co., Ltd. Broadway House, 68-74 Carter Lane, E.C, MDCCCCXV I-'irst Edition, 1900 Second (Popular) Edition, 1915 The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved Editor's Preface When Mr. Plomer consented at my request to write a short history of EngHsh printing which should stop neither at the end of the fifteenth century, nor at the end of the sixteenth century, nor at 1640, but should come down, as best it could, to our ovm day, we were not without appre- hensions that the task might prove one of some difficulty. How difficult it would be we had certainly no idea, or the book would never have been begun, and now that it is Imished I would bespeak the reader's sympathies, on Mr. Plomer 's behalf, that its inevitable shortcomings may be the more generously forgiven. If we look at what has already been written on the subject the diffi- culties will be more easily appreciated. In England, as in other countries, the period in the history of the press which is best known to us is, by the perversity of antiquaries, that which is furthest removed from our own time.
    [Show full text]
  • 9 Rare Book Librarianship and Historical Bibliography
    9 Rare book librarianship and historical bibliography K. E. Attar Introduction The rare books world saw considerable activity in the years 2011–2015, and, especially through Research Libraries UK (RLUK) initiatives, enjoyed a high profile. Particular emphasis was on digitization, rendering texts available out- side library walls. Concurrently, libraries plunged themselves into ‘engage- ment’ (the buzzword supplanting ‘promotion’ and ‘outreach’ as a traditional core activity of rare book librarianship, and consciously including ‘public engagement’ beyond a library’s main stakeholders), whereby the celebration of printed objects through exhibitions, publications, and teaching emphasized the continued value of the printed artefact. Such activity, alongside acquisi- tions, concern at disposals, and projects to house special collections in new environments, conveyed a clear and triumphant message amidst challenges that rare books and special collections matter. RLUK initiatives A strand on ‘promoting unique and distinctive collections’ within RLUK strategy 2011–2014 gave special collections particular prominence. The purpose was to maximize ‘the potential of these collections in all formats held by RLUK members’, including ‘activity on public engagement, fundraising, promotion, resource discovery and delivery, and digitisation, and … encom- pass[ing] value, impact and staff skills’.1 The main resulting report was ‘Unique and distinctive collections: opportunities for research libraries’, which defined unique and distinctive collections (‘UDCs’),
    [Show full text]
  • Palaeography and Manuscript | University of Kent
    09/27/21 Palaeography and Manuscript | University of Kent Palaeography and Manuscript View Online Spring ‘A. Cappelli. Dizionario Di Abbreviature Latine Ed Italiani. Index.’ N.p., n.d. Print. A C De la Mare. The Handwriting of the Italian Humanists. OUP [for] Association Internationale de Bibliophilie, 1973. Print. Alexander, J J G. Medieval Learning and Literature. [Place of publication not identified]: Clarendon, 1976. Print. Bernard Cerquiglini. In Praise of the Variant: A Critical History of Philology (Parallax: Re-Visions of Culture and Society). The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. Print. Bischoff, Bernhard, Cro ́ inin, Da ́ ibhi ́ o ́ , and Ganz, David. Latin Palaeography: Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Print. Bishop, T A M. Facsimiles of English Royal Writs to AD 1100, Presented to V H Galbraith. [Place of publication not identified]: Clarendon Press, 1957. Print. ---. Scriptores Regis; Facsimiles to Identify and Illustrate the Hands of Royal Scribes in Original Charters of Henry I, Stephen and Henry II. [Place of publication not identified]: Clarendon Press, 1961. Print. Bishop, Terence Alan Martyn. English Caroline Minuscule. Oxford palaeographical handbooks. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971. Print. Blake, and N F. ‘Caxton’s Copytext of Gower's Confessio Amantis.’ William Caxton and English Literary Culture. London: Hambledon Press, 1991. Web. <http://library.kent.ac.uk/cgi-bin/resources.cgi?url=http://www.kentuk.eblib.com/patron/Fu llRecord.aspx?p=742542>. Blake N.F. ‘Editing the Canterbury Tales: An Overview.’ The Canterbury Tales Project 1/7 09/27/21 Palaeography and Manuscript | University of Kent Occasional Papers: V.1: Edited by Norman Blake and Peter Robinson.
    [Show full text]
  • Cambridge University Library Annual Report 2008–2009 Detail of Coats of Arms of Statutes of 1570, Given to the University, Ca
    Cambridge University Library Annual Report 2008–2009 Detail of coats of arms of Statutes of 1570, given to the University, ca. 1589 the University by Elizabeth I (UA Hare A.1, f. 7r). (UA Luard 187, f. 1v). HIGHLIGHTS 2008–9 has been a period of considerable change and activity for the Library, and this report sets out the key developments of the past year. Chief amongst these was the retirement of Mr Peter Fox as Librarian on 31 March 2009. Mr Fox’s achievements during his fifteen years of service were highlighted at events hosted by the Vice- Chancellor and the Chairman of the Library Syndicate and attended by university colleagues and library directors from across the UK and beyond. Mrs Anne Jarvis was elected as his successor and took up the post on 1 April 2009. Some of the major initiatives of the past year have been in the area of fundraising. Not only is this year the University’s 800th anniversary, it is also the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin. It is therefore pertinent that this report should begin with the news of a generous £480,000 donation from The Bonita Trust for a three-year Darwin and Gender project. Among the specific areas that Darwin and Gender will address are Darwin’s domestic life, gender in a scientific context and gender and society. A pencil sketch by George Richmond of Charles Darwin around ....................................................................................... the time of his marriage to his cousin, Emma Wedgwood, in 1839. It hangs in the Manuscripts Reading Room. Not only is this year the University’s 800th anniversary, it is also the 200th anniversary of the is reliant on raising funding from charitable bodies and birth of Charles Darwin.
    [Show full text]
  • Download This PDF File
    have issued publications under such top-heavy lectures supplement the author's History of designations. the Cambridge University Press (1921) where This raises the practical point: do such lists the material on early publishing lacked the really make a contribution, or are they mere- information provided by manuscripts since ly the by-products of "busy work"? It may be discovered and where the material on modern argued that even if they are in the latter cat- publishing was, with proper delicacy, subor- egory, theresults are possibly useful and should dinated. Thus, the earlier book discusses works be made available. All well and good, but part published or printed at the beginning of the of the $5.00 price tag on the Wisconsin list eighteenth century with occasional references is due to the padding-out of headings. Each to the curators' minute-books; in the present library must assess the value of these lists for volume, cash accounts are analyzed to show itself, weighing the advantages against the production costs. The "sad story of the pub- drawbacks. Librarians need not be reminded lication of the Suidas Lexicon" (1705), in that, an Oklahoma heading to the contrary, which, unwillingly, "the Curators were for the there is no Santa Claus Commission.—John first time faced with the problems and respon- Rather, School of Library Service, Columbia sibilities of a publisher," is here told in de- University. tail. The master of Pembroke then turns to the nineteenth century, discussing efforts to main- Cambridge Publishing tain the press on a profitable basis before con- The Evolution of Cambridge Publishing.
    [Show full text]
  • Donald Francis Mckenzie 1931–1999
    DON MCKENZIE Copyright © The British Academy 2002 – all rights reserved Donald Francis McKenzie 1931–1999 DON MCKENZIE was Professor of English Language and Literature in Victoria University of Wellington, and later Professor of Bibliography and Textual Criticism in Oxford. One of the most stimulating teachers of his generation, he gave to bibliographical study new purposes and insights, and argued for its place at the centre of literary and historical understanding. In a lifetime divided between his native New Zealand and Britain, he sought to influence national values in both countries, whether in bibliography, theatre, publishing, or librarianship. A quick critical intelligence, an almost intuitive gift for friendship, personal sensitivity and a striking liveliness in his appearance, all informed his professional and private life alike. He was born on 5 June 1931 in Timaru, South Canterbury, New Zealand, the son of Leslie Alwyn Olson McKenzie and his wife Millicent Irene. He was the eldest of four brothers and a sister. His father, a boot- maker, was restless; and as the family moved about so Don moved also: when he reached Palmerston North Boys’ High School he had attended about a dozen primary and secondary schools. But by the time he left Palmerston North he had made a lifelong friend in Iain Lonie, who became a distinguished poet and whose premature death in 1988 caused him great distress. On leaving school in 1948, and a summer job in a meat freezing plant that turned him into a vegetarian, he joined the staff of the Post Office, as a cadet. There he was appointed to the Public Relations Department in Wellington, a situation that both provided a living and permitted him to Proceedings of the British Academy, 115, 297–315.
    [Show full text]