| AdminHistory | The author is presumably Arthur William Symons: born at Milford Haven, 1865; educated at various private schools in Devon; determined at an early age to devote himself to literature; often visited France and became versed in its literature and art from 1889; contributed regularly to the 'Athenaeum', the 'Saturday Review' and the 'Fortnightly Review'; among the important young writers of the 1890s; published several books of poetry and criticism; wrote on European cities; wrote plays and had some of them performed; edited anthologies and other works; made translations from authors in six languages; his health broke down in Italy, 1908; his mental illness last about two years and he was confined in mental hospitals; never fully recovered; continued writing, but much of his work remained unpublished; more prolific, but tending to concern himself still with artists and writers of the 1890s and 1900s, rather than contemporary ones, 1919-1930; died, 1945. Publications: poetry, plays, criticism, and edited works, 1886-1931, including 'Symbolist Movement in Literature' (1899) and the autobiographical 'Confessions: A Study in Pathology' (1930). |
| CustodialHistory | Part of the library of Charles Kay Ogden (1889-1957), linguistic psychologist, founder of the Orthological Institute and originator of the language system Basic English, whose interests in language systems are reflected in the subject matter of his collection, which comprised individual manuscripts and manuscript collections dating from the 14th to the 20th century. |