‘Cleaned bus.
German class.
Social Hist. class.’
Entry dated Tues 23rd April 1918, diary of Olaf Stapledon [OS/A1/20].
This Week’s War: 194
Aside
‘April 21. R. R. R. arrived at midnight for final leave. Very well.’
Entry from the diary of Hugh Reynolds and Emily Evelyn Rathbone [RP XVA.3.172].
Reference round-up
A review of some recent additions to the Special Collections & Archives reference collection held in the SC&A reading room gives a snapshot of some of the research taking place at the tables there. It include works engaged with, or illustrated from, collections as diverse as the Cunard Archive, 18th- and 19th-century Liverpool writings, the papers of David Owen, and illustrated editions of Homer.
Marc-Antoine Bombail and Michael Gallagher, The fleet book (2017)
The fleet book by Marc-Antoine Bombail and Michael Gallagher gives,
A complete and detailed list of all the Cunard ships that have served with the company since 1840. Each vessel is classified in chronological order of entry into Cunard service, and has a brief description, and history, while the majority of them are accompanied by a photograph.
The book uses many illustrations from the Cunard Archive.
David Owen, Cabinet’s finest hour (2016)
David Owen’s Cabinet’s finest hour adds to the section of the SC&A reference collection devoted to the David Owen Archive, which was deposited at the University following on Lord Owen’s tenure as Chancellor, 1996 – 2008.
Special issues of La questione romantica on Edward Rushton’s bicentenary (2017)
The two special issues La questione romantica on the bicentenary of Edward Rushton (1756-1814) cover many of the activities and participants celebrating one of Liverpool’s forgotten heroes. They draw on early printed editions of Rushton’s works from Special Collections and include wide-ranging essays on his career as poet, abolitionist, founder of the Liverpool Blind School and on the wider contemporary culture of Liverpool.
One aspect of that culture was the thriving ceramic industry, which also features in the most recent addition to the reference collections:
Dick Henrywood, Transferware Recorder 4 (2018)
The volume includes reproductions of John Flaxman’s designs for The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer from William Sotheby’s 1834 edition in the Homer collection of illustrated editions. The designs appeared on soup tureens, vegetable dishes, sugar boxes, teapots, wash jugs, and sauceboats.
This Week’s War: 193
Aside
‘Alarming German advance, our lines further pushed back.’
Entry dated Thursday 11th April 1918, diary of John Bruce Glasier [GP/2/1/25].
This Week’s War: 192
Aside
“German offensive at end of March very disquieting.”
Entry from the diary of Emily Evelyn and Hugh Reynolds Rathbone [RP XVA.3.172].
‘New’ online catalogue – Cunard Chairman’s Correspondence (2)
We are pleased to announce that the catalogue for the papers of Sir Percy Bates who became deputy Chairman of the Cunard Steamship Co. in 1922 and was Chairman from 1930 until his death in 1946 is now available online. Sir Percy Bates was instrumental in the development of two of Cunard’s most prestigious vessels, the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth and oversaw historic periods in the company’s history, including the formation of Cunard White Star Line and the Second World War.
Sir Percy Bates on his way to Chicago 1938 (D42/C3/1/2/63)
The majority of papers in the D42/C3 series descend from Sir Percy Bates’ private files, which he himself created and therefore reflects his daily working life. Files have been numbered and arranged in an order designed by Bates himself, presumably to meet his working needs, and tend to be grouped by topic and theme or individual and organisation. Indexes are available for Sir Percy’s business and personal files. Totalling 85 boxes, these papers are considerably more extensive than those for either the Booth or Royden Chairmanship.
Over the next few months, catalogues for the papers of other members of the Bates family from the time of their Chairmanship will go online. These include Frederick Bates who succeeded Percy as Chairman of Cunard, holding that post during the years 1946-1953 and Denis Bates who was the final member of the Bates family to be Chairman of Cunard from 1953-1959.
Researchers are also able to access the catalogue for The Bates Family Papers (D641) which are part of the Cunard Associated Deposits. This collection complements the Chairman’s Papers of the Cunard archive and provides real insight into both the personal and professional lives of members of the Bates family.
Items from Dennis Bates’ war service (D641/3)
These family papers were used by Philip E. Bates to research his book The Bates of Bellefield, Gryn Castle and Manydown and by Percy Bates in writing his book Some Transactions of a Halifax Family. They comprise personal and work-related correspondence, letter books, legal documents, diaries, photographs and medals, news clippings, shipping memorabilia, a pencil drawing and other related papers. Some of the highlights include letters sent by Dennis Bates whilst on active service during the First World War, business papers of Edward Bates & Sons and a pencil sketch of a soldier by John Lockwood Kipling.
Pencil Sketch of a soldier by John Lockwood Kipling, given to Percy Bates by Rudyard Kipling (D641/2/4/1)
This Week’s War: 191
Aside
Wedding Bells
‘Sergt. H. C. Hiles, M. M., R. F. A. (Bristol Office), visited Liverpool during a fortnight’s leave from the Italian Front. We learnt that he had been fortunate in love and war, having just taken unto himself a life partner. We also noted he was wearing the ribbon of the Military Medal. He has our sincere wishes for life long happiness.’
Extract from Cunard magazine March/April 1918 issue [D42/PR5/1].
World Poetry Day (2): The Merseyside Poets – Small Press Publications
In 1979 the Library established a project which aimed to create a special collection of “manuscripts, notebooks, correspondence, etc. and first published versions, of contemporary Merseyside writers”. The poets initially selected for inclusion were David Calder, Gladys Mary Coles, Carol Ann Duffy, Henry Graham, Adrian Henri, Harold and Sylvia Hikins, Richard Hill, Sid Hoddes, Roger McGough, Alasdair Patterson, Matt Simpson, Brian Wake and Dave Ward – with the works of many other local writers added subsequently. Though it never quite achieved the ambitious, comprehensive aims apparently intended for it, the resulting collection – which has been greatly enhanced by the University’s subsequent acquisition of the archives of McGough, Patten and Henri in 2010, and the archive of Matt Simpson in 2016 – does help to document and illustrate the rich history of the 20th century Liverpool poetry scene.
Integral to this scene were a large number of small press poetry publications that were designed and produced locally. Amongst the earliest of these were the magazines Matrix and Asylum, founded by Tony Dash and Brian Wake in the late 1960s:
Asylum
Dash and Wake went on to run Driftwood Publications out of Bootle, producing the Driftwood poets series which featured a range of local poets.
Similarly, in 1976 Dave Calder and Dave Ward founded the Windows Project, from which sprang the Merseyside Poetry Minibook Series, showcasing the work of poets with a local connection:
Merseyside Poetry Minibook Series
Ward was also responsible for the production of the poetry magazine Smoke, featuring the work of local, national and international poets. This magazine is still published today:
Smoke
Other local outfits at the time included the Toulouse Press (run by Harold and Sylvia Hikins), Raven Books, Headland Publications (still run by Gladys-Mary Coles), and The Glasshouse Press:
Glasshouse Press
Raven Books
These publications, which mostly date from the 1960s to 1980s, were sold at readings and events, as well as in bookshops and to subscribers around the world. The biggest sales, however, were achieved by hawking copies in pubs and clubs around Liverpool. Brian Wake recalls drinkers in O’Connor’s Tavern in Hardman Street, Ye Cracke and The Philharmonic Hotel, proving particularly literary in their tastes.
As the images above attest, these items were lovingly made, and stand testament to the creative energies of the individuals that produced them. Often colourful and highly-illustrated, they demonstrate a wide range of printing techniques, and featured local artists, photographers and reviewers alongside local, national and international writers. Their editors sought to include the works of lesser-known and new poets alongside more established names such as McGough, Patten and Henri. In this way, they helped to launch a number of careers, including those of Matt Simpson (whose early work was published by Driftwood) and Carol Ann Duffy (published when still little-known by Gladys Mary Coles of Headland Press, for example).
Before the advent of online publications, these carefully and beautifully produced objects provided a means to circulate the work of an increasingly diverse range of poets to an equally diverse audience then. As Brian Wake writes, whilst the social media platforms more commonly used for this purpose today may provide “democracy of a kind”, one might argue that they compromise something of “the thrill of holding a new printed volume of poetry or a crisp edition of the latest poetry magazine”, to say nothing of the camaraderie of pub-based peddling!
If you are interesting in learning more about this collection you can find details of published material by searching our printed books catalogue: http://library.liv.ac.uk/search~S3/X. General enquiries, and enquiries about archive material should be sent to scastaff@liverpool.ac.uk.
World Poetry Day (1): International Women’s Day
This month we are celebrating both International Women’s Day (8th March) and World Poetry Day (21st March). Therefore, we are showcasing material held in the Special Collections and Science Fiction Foundation collections which contains poetry written by women who personally or professionally impacted greatly on their respective field of literature.
Phillis Wheatley, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773)
Poems on Various Subjects was authored by Phillis Wheatley. Phillis was purchased as a slave by John Wheatley, a Boston Merchant and Tailor, in 1761. She was tutored by John’s children in reading and writing, and wrote her first poem ‘To The University of Cambridge, New England’ at the age of 12. She was relieved of her domestic duties by the Wheatley family, and encouraged to continue working on her literature. An illustration of Wheatley by Scipio Moorhead, another Boston slave, is provided in the frontispiece; the below extract is taken from a poem within the volume written by Wheatley in return. Our copy belonged to one of the William’s of the Rathbone family (by date most likely IV or V), as signed on the title page.
SPEC Y77.3.255
To S.M. a young African Painter, on seeing his Works (p. 114).
When first thy pencil did those beauties give,
And breathing figures learnt from thee to live,
How did those prospects give my soul delight,
A new creation rushing on my sight?
Radclyffe Hall, Rhymes and Rhythms (1948)
Rhymes and Rhythms was published posthumously in an edition of only 500 numbered copies in Milan. Our copy from the Zania collection is numbered as “5”. The text is provided in both the original language of English as well as Italian. Radclyffe Hall (1880-1943) is best known for her work The Well of Lonliness, which when published in 1928 was subject to a trial for obscenity and banned in Great Britain. A self-described “invert”, she lived with two long-term female partners during her lifetime, hence the dedication page inscription “Dedicated to Our Three Selves”.
SPEC ZANIA E68
Those Who Have Eyes… (p.61)
As I took my way down a certain street,
I saw a shop with a corpse of meat,
And a horse that hadn’t enough to eat,
And a cur that limped on neglected feet,
And a cat that rubbed its sores on a wall,
And a lobster that crawled about a stall,
And an organ monkey coughing and small.
But the sight that filled me with deepest rage,
Was a nightingale in a six inch cage.
Carol Ann Duffy, Jackie Kay (and various others), Five Finger Piglets: Poems (1999)
Carol Ann Duffy and Jackie Kay contributed to this anthology for children, Five Finger Piglets: Poems. Duffy was appointed poet laureate in 2009, and she is the first woman, first Scot, and first openly LGBT person to hold the position; Kay is the third Scottish Poet Laureate, appointed in 2016, and also identifies as LGBT. Our copy of the anthology is held in the SPEC Patten series, as Brian Patten also contributed to this volume. The poetry is understandably centered upon many themes that would be familiar to children (such as friendship disputes at school and losing a ball in the neighbours garden), but, nonetheless, the volume is a excellently fun read for adults, too.
SPEC Patten 108 © 1999 Macmillan Children’s Books, Carol Ann Duffy, Jackie Kay
Excerpt from Dracula (p. 36-7), by and © Jackie Kay
I crawled along the pine floor to my father’s bed.
It was empty. Just a white pillow and a headrest.
My dad gave a large guffaw from the balcony.
Took off his black cape; threw back his head,
said, ‘Got you there didn’t I?
Okay. The Joke’s over. Back to your bed.’
Can you believe that? All I am asking is:
who needs imagination, a fear or a dread,
when what we’ve got is parent’s instead?
Charlotte Brooke, Reliques of Irish Poetry (1816)
Reliques of Irish Poetry was first published in the late eighteenth century. Brooke (c. 1740–1793) was passionate in the preservation of Irish culture and heritage through translating traditional poetry. Our beautiful gilt-tooled calf-bound copy of the 1816 reissue includes an extensive biography of Brooke’s life, as well as poetry and prose in both English and Irish. The text contains poetry of varied types, including quasi-epic style heroics, elegies to loves lost, and odes to wars.
SPEC Y81.3.426
Elergy III, exerpt (p. 260, attributed by Brooke to Edmond Ryan)
For thee all dangers would I brave,
Life with joy, with pride exposing,
Breast for thee the stormy wave,
Winds and tides in vain opposing.
As one of the most influential female Science Fiction authors of all time, Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018) is best known for her fiction, including The Left Hand of Darkness (1969; which won both the Hugo and Nebula awards in 1970). However, in her 2004 collection of non-fiction essays The Wave in the Mind, she explores themes including the family, on being a woman, Tolkein, and writing. One particular interesting essay is her thoughts on stress rhythms in poetry and prose; she demonstrates, using various texts, the technique and necessity of reading with stress and rhythm in mind.
PX320.L34.W38 2004 © Ursula K. Le Guin
The observation of a pattern, even a arbitrary pattern, can give strength to words that otherwise would be bleating like lost lambs. (p. 78)
All the above can be consulted in the reading room. As usual, please do contact scastaff@liverpool.ac.uk for more information.
This Week’s War: 190
Aside
‘From 4:30 am German bombardments. One shell hit our dugout, another by the door, others near. Much gas, wore masks and shut gas curtain.’
Entry dated Wednesday 20th March 1918, diary of Olaf Stapledon [OS/A1/20].