Poets and Polymaths: Special Collections at the University of Sussex

Citation

James, S. (2003), "Poets and Polymaths: Special Collections at the University of Sussex", Library Review, Vol. 52 No. 9, pp. 462-462. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242530310501509

One of the major achievements of the last decade, and one set both to continue and to widen, is a greater appreciation and knowledge of, and access to, special collections in a whole host of libraries, large and small, academic, public or specialist. There are of course related conservation problems in increased access, but much of both the access and the protection is now being pursued by digital means. Still, nothing beats, where appropriate, handling the original material, or reading a good account – perhaps on a screen but most satisfyingly in an attractive book. Over the years there have been vast numbers of printed catalogues, histories or other accounts of individual collections or of ranges of collections held in particular libraries. At one end of the scale is the vast scholarly catalogue, at the other the more exciting account of a collection and its contents, vicissitudes and significance, as likely to be written by a scholar who has used the collections as by a librarian or archivist who keeps them: in this latter case one thinks for example of the still entertaining work of Richard Altick (1960).

This book comes somewhere between the two extremes, but with a distinct leaning toward the “popular scholarly” approach. To start with it is visually attractive: no surprise since the copy came with a flyer for the Art and Design Books in Brighton (ADBIB) Project. It has plenty of illustrations, both photographs of the people who made or who featured in the original collections and of documentary items from them; is well designed and produced with effective use of colour; and uses “boxes” to enliven and expand the basic texts. The texts themselves are very much up to the same standard: accounts of why and how the collections were formed in the first place, concentrating naturally on the people who formed them, then indicating the type of materials in each collection and their significance for various kinds of research. These accounts are supported by details of particular associated aspects or people in “boxes” (The Worktown Project 1937‐40 for Mass Observation, Kingsley Martin for The New Statesman Archive, for example). Also in boxes are accounts of their use of the archives by particular scholars and one or two essays assessing the importance of a particular subject (Lorenzo Thomas discussing the impact of Rosey Pool as an editor). Each entry concentrates on a major collection, with additional notes on related or subsidiary collections, details of published works and Internet links to other relevant sources. A preface and introduction, and a foreword by Asa Briggs, give a concise introduction to the collections and how they came to be gathered at Sussex.

The largest section of the book deals with a dozen archive and manuscript collections, from the Bloomsbury Archives to the Rosey Pool Collection, and featuring among others Rudyard Kipling, Charles Madge (and Mass Observation), J.G. Crowther, and the Frank Muir and Dennis Norden Archive (likely to bring back fond memories to those of us of a certain, pre‐television, age). The second shorter section covers printed material: the Eugene W. Schulkind Paris Commune Collection; the rare book collections; and other printed material. The book is completed by notes on the contributors, concise details of how and where to access the collections, and an index of names.

There are many ways of presenting special collections: the big directory (notably Bloomfield, 1997), the narrative thematic account of a group of major libraries (Pickering, 1996) or the traditional library‐based expanded lists (typical recent examples being Glasgow University Library, 1995 or Burch and Clark, 1998; increasingly such material is now to be found on library web sites). Or for the ancient and richly endowed there is the fully illustrated account of the treasures (for example Fox, 1986). This attractive volume sits in its own niche among these, and both creates and fills it well. The University of Sussex Library has some significant collections especially relating to twentieth‐century culture, reminding us that important and useful collections are to be found in newer as well as older institutions; this book makes them accessible in several ways (including its very low price) to a wider range of interested parties (not only scholars, although they will be the major market) by bringing to life both the collections and their founders.