In 1951 the literary scholar Muriel Bradbrook published Shakespeare and Elizabethan Poetry and, in the Girton Review, “The Ladder of Academic Success”, a snakes-and-ladders game on how to become a successful female academic at Cambridge. Years later, Bradbrook put some of the moves into practice herself when she was appointed Cambridge’s first ( Read more... )

What I read
Finished Liza of Lambeth - everybody is fairly horrible and also pathetic. Plus, I thought it was a cop-out to have Liza die like that, but possibly (like the language issue I mentioned in my earlier post on the topic) Maugham felt having her surviving and having to go on the streets was not publishable?
Elizabeth von Arnim, The ( Read more... )

Today I have been struck by several things which manifest a certain, shall we say, unmooring from linear history?
And some of these are trivial, indeed, only the sort of thing a nitpicking pedant such as myself would bother with even noticing, and at least one has serious real-life implications.
To dismiss the minor and trivial: blurb for a romance ( Read more... )

Dept of, Miff once more at the British Library: okay, I finally got to see the manuscript I ordered the other week (after being 'processing' it was 'returned to store', I ordered it again and lo and behold, it was in due course 'ready for collection' in the Manuscripts Reading Room.). Alas, it contained nothing of relevance to my research. However ( Read more... )

(No, really, I'm not at all paranoid that I'm having problems over looking at records relating to censorship, perish the thort.)
Yesterday I trotted off to the BL, and looked at 2 files I'd ordered that did not address the thing I was looking for, and managed to identify from the not entirely helpful finding aid to the collection (a large part of ( Read more... )

I got to see the particular texts I wanted to see, and one of them was actually the originally typescript with ms corrections and emendations of the Play That Was Banned By The Censor in 1907 unless the author agreed to remove all references to something that was, in fact, fairly key a) to the overall action and b) to the symbolism.
Also the ( Read more... )

Journos writing about libraries from a position of, apparently, knowing nothing about the subject.
Only at Oxford could musty tomes about phallic worship be regarded as a genuine target for onanistic students.
Firstly, we sincerely hope that environmental standards at the Bodleian are such that the tomes are not musty: I would imagine that ( Read more... )

Two research visits to libraries this week, both involving preorders, both involving microfilm (hiss, spit),* under the the time pressure of, oops, my chapter is technically due next month and I would like to have these last few cites checked -
And a couple of things that I had previously failed to get access to looked at.
And lo and behold, ( Read more... )

Statistically speaking, it seems more likely than not that if I go to a research library/archive, I will bump into someone I know/knew back when.
There was one where this did not in fact apply, but otherwise it has been remarkably consistent.
Today I went to one I had been meaning to get a reader's ticket for for ages, and in fact completed the ( Read more... )

Okay, in my time I've spent longer days nose down in archives - this one is 9-4, Mon-Fri, with an hour's break for lunch - but perhaps I'm no longer up to the more marathon efforts. As it is I feel like the Hunchback of Notre Dame by the time I pack up at the end of the day.
So, not much to see here, am skipping doing anything for FF Friday this ( Read more... )