| AdminHistory | Albert James Alroy Symons: born in London, 1900; educated privately; founded the First Edition Club, 1922; organised the selection of the Fifty Books of the Year from 1926; founded the 'Book-Collector's Quarterly', 1930; associated with Andr L Simon and others in founding the Saintsbury Club, 1931; involved in founding the Wine and Food Society, 1933; Director of the First Edition Club; Secretary of the Wine and Food Society; an authority on book-collecting and especially the literature and bibliography of the 1890s; a collector of Victoriana, particularly musical boxes; died, 1941. Publications: 'Frederick Baron Corvo' (1926); 'Emin, Governor of Equatoria' (1928); 'An Anthology of Nineties Verse' (1930); 'A Study of Oscar Wilde' (1930); 'HM Stanley' (1933); 'The Quest for Corvo' (1934); 'The Nonesuch Century' (1936). |
| 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. |