~ OSLER LIBRARY NEWSLETTER McGill University, Montreal, Canada No.57 - February 1988 Finding Osler's Letters will, we trust, be conveyed by this prelimi- The lead article of this issue of the News- in the Osler Library: A Preliminary nary report. Report and Some Discoveries An important percentage of Osler's in- letter is by Dr. Faith Wallis, History of eir Mitchell, Sir William coming correspondence is preserved inside Medicine Librarian, and Mr. Blake Gop- Osler's long-time associ- the books which make up his library. He used nik, a history student at McGill Univer- ate and colleague, once his library as a sort of classified filing cabinet, sity who, over the past two summers, wrote, "My own opinion inserting letters that he felt were worth keep- has been working on the Osler Letters about letters is that se- ing into an appropriate or memorable place Inventory Project. Mr. Gopnik's work lected letters tell you very in one of his books. The practice was conti- on this project was made possible by a little about the character nued by W. W. Francis, with the result that grant from the Canadian government's of the person, but if you Osler's books came to be heavily annotated "Challenge" programme for student had all the letters and all the notes and more- with his personal memoribilia. The letters, Summer employment. over all the checks a person ever wrote, you when not loose, are usually found glued to might then have an opinion.,,1 Were that in- the end-papers or fly-leaves, but occasionally deed so, few people's lives could be more they are bound in next to, or tipped into the bal impression of the extent and quality of thoroughly reconstructed and studied than relevant page of the text. Sometimes the let- our Osler correspondence, we decided to Osler's. After reading his morning mail and ter is from the author of the book itself, some- abandon this procedure in favour of a much scanning the daily harvest of journals, Osler times about the author or the work, and briefer, telegraphic summary. To compensate might write a dozen or more notes and post- sometimes simply on the same general topic. for this restriction, we have noted the literary cards to members of his family or to other Responses to inquiries after information or genre of each item of correspondence (e.g. in- medical men.2 Cushing remarks upon "this bibliographical references, and notes from vitation, query, sale offer, etc.) and indicated habit of impulsive note-writing: for when- booksellers, also find their way between the the general character of the contents (e.g. ever occasion offered, a card always conveni- covers of the Bibliothecabooks. medical, historical-medical, financial, editor- ent to hand was scribbled and posted.,,3 The The first phase of our project involved lo- ial, bibliographical, etc.). Although a piece of postcard was a favourite medium; with the cating and briefly cataloguing every letter correspondence logically "belongs" to its re- passage of time, and as the pressures of work currently attached to a Bibliotheca Osleriana cipient, we have filed the worksheets by mounted and his circle of acquaintances book. Only true correspondence was in- author and date, since the recipient of the grew, the postcard became virtually his only cluded in this inventory: correspondence to overwhelming majority of the letters covered style of correspondence.4 Nonetheless, he oc- other people (e.g. W. W. Francis), inscrip- by this project is Sir William Osler himself. casionally found time for longer letters. tions, calling cards and Sir William's casual To date, all the books in the Bibliothecasave These were usually undated and casually jottings are not recorded. When an item of those of folio and elephantine size have been punctuated, but often incisive and astringent, correspondence was found, it was recorded combed for letters. 9672 volumes have been and sometimes touchingly revealing. A bout on a specially designed worksheet with its lo- inspected, and 1054 letters found, totalling of bronchitis or a cold was a welcome pretext cation and reference number within the Li- 2412 manuscript pages. However, quite for this sort of activity.5 brary. The call number of the "host" book is apart from the remaining Bibliotheca books, Cushing's running titles - "Countless fly- given, together with the book's author, title, there are still many more places in the Osler ing missives", "A shower of postcards" - bear and publication data, and the exact location Library where we will find Osler's letters. In witness to the enormous role that corre- of the letter within the volume. Much atten- the course of cataloguing the Bibliotheca spondence, and his correspondents, played tion was devoted to the state of the item. Is it books over the years, we have removed let- in Osler's life. It is therefore rather curious an original letter or a copy? handwritten or ters and other papers not pasted or bound that no inventory of Osler's letters has ever typed? if it is a copy, is it a transcription or a into the volumes and transferred them to a been attempted. Many individual letter col- mechanical copy (carbon or photostat)? special accession in the archives division of lections have been published or noticed,6 but What form of correspondence is it (letter, the Osler Library, where they are stored in we have no clear picture of the extent, scope, postcard, telegram...)? Finally, what is the acid-free boxes and envelopes in Bibliotheca location, or character of the correspondence physical size of the letter and how many Osleriananumber order. Another major repo- as a whole. Amazingly, not even all the letters pages does it contain? The names of author sitory of Osler's incoming letters is the so- to and from Osler in the Osler Library have and recipient are recorded, both in the form called "Osler Papers", Osler Library archives been identified and listed. As the Library ser- in which they apprear on the letter (e.g. "Wil- accession 326. For the most part, these papers ves as a major clearing-house of information lie") and in their full, established form ("Wil- stem from Osler's Oxford years, and were about Sir William Osler, this defect makes our liam Willoughby Francis"); this is followed probably picked up by Francis from 13 Nor- reference services much less effective than by the addresses of both parties and by the ham Gardens. Some work has been done on date. might be wished. In view of this, a project individual sections of the "Osler papers" such was launched in the summers of 1986 and The "Contents" rubric on our worksheet is as the book bills? but most of this collection 1987 to locate and briefly describe every the general heading for information concern- is accessible only through a preliminary list- piece of correspondence to and from Sir Wil- ing the subject matter of the correspondence. ing of the major file headings and groups of liam Osler in the Osler Library. Some notion At the outset of the project, we attempted to correspondence (e.g., letters concerning an- of the difficulties and complexities of this give a fairly detailed description of each item, gina research, or telegram books); the indi- task, as well as of its surprises and rewards, but in the light of our need to gain some glo- vidual letters remain to be catalogued. The initial letter on this page is from The Handbook of Mediaeval Alphabets and Devices by Henry Shaw and is reproduced from Alexander Nesbitt (ed.), Decorative Alphabets and Initials (New York: Dover, 1959). Many of the letters addressed to Osler ant influence upon his thought of the prag- spondence. Osler owned a copy of Whar- probably finished up in his waste-paper bas- matism of William James, the eminent psy- ton's 1908 novel on euthanasia, TheFruit of ket, for he had a reputation for casually toss- chologist, educator and philosopher of theTree(Bibl.Os/. 5578A); apparently he pur- ing out papers that were no longer of religion.8 William James' brother was Henry chased this book on his own, from Foyle's in immediate import, with little concern for James. Edelstein points out that Osler came London. The second of the two Wharton posterity. This contrasts sharply with the into personal contact with the James family, books in the Bibliothecais no. 617, Artemis to devotion with which the recipients of his and cared for William and his daughter in Acteon and Other Verse(New York: Scribner's, postcards and notes guarded his writings. their illnesses. He does not mention, how- 1909); this is a presentation copy from Whar- Many of his correspondents, or their heirs ever, that Osler also helped Henry James ton to Osler, dated, significantly, March 1910. and families, have presented us with letters through a very serious nervous breakdown Osler included this book in the Bibliothecafor from his hand. These can take the form of a in 1910. This omission is the more remark- the sake of one of its poems, "Vesalius in fairly extensive series of correspondence able in that Edelstein reproduced two letters Zante", a work with which, as we shall see, (such as the group of letters from Osler to from William James to Osler, found in he was already familiar. Glued to the back George Dock recently donated to the Library Osler's copies of James' Pragmatism (Bibl. fly-leaves are two letters from Wharton to by Dr Edgar Mauer of Los Angeles), or a Os/. 3074),and SomeProblemsof Philosophy Osler, which we transcribe here.