THE EDMUND GOSSE COLLECTION

Turnbull Library Record, Volume XI, 1 November 1953, Page 14

THE EDMUND GOSSE COLLECTION

In the standard Life and Letters of Sir Edmund Gosse (1931) by the Hon. Evan Cliarteris, there is a fairly complete bibliography of Gosse’s writings. This was supplied for the book by Norman Gullick, of the London Times , a lifelong friend and admirer of Gosse, and a collector of his works. In his later years Gullick retired to Sydney, where he disposed of his Gosse Collection en bloc , whereupon it was purchased by the Alexander Turnbull Library from that notable bookman, Mr. James Tyrrell.

Gosse’s position as one of the foremost English men of letters of the period from 1880 till 1920 makes it important to have a full range of his writings, and though a number of entries already appeared in the library catalogue, the list was far from complete. The collection now acquired makes the holdings virtually complete, for the library already had some titles lacking from Gullick’s collection.

What makes this accession of particular value is its richness in privately-printed and fugitive items, the number of original manuscripts by Gosse, and the considerable group of letters from Gosse to Gullick, as well as letters to Gosse from people such as Thomas Hardy, George Saintsbury, Thomas James Wise, Philip Gosse and others.

Included in the collection are gramophone recordings of a lecture by Gosse on Thomas Hardy, his catalogue of the library of the House of Lords, and his magnificent volume in the Goupil series, on British Portrait Painters and Engravers of the Eighteenth Century (1906). There are several brochures that are described by Gullick as unique, and others that are extremely rare.

Apparently, however, this collector did not deem it necessary to make the group all-inclusive, for such items as the notorious attack by John Churton Collins and the defence by Swinburne are lacking. Gosse’s own vindication is here of course, making the lack more apparent. Nevertheless, the collection as a whole binds together many threads of literary thought, research, and events of this very active period, when Gosse was probably the key figure in English letters.