Box 1

Collector Robert Dechert's review of Wilfred Partington's Forging Ahead: The True Story of the Upward Progress of Thomas James Wise, Prince of Book Collectors, Bibliographer Extraordinary and Otherwise (1939). Corrected typescript with Dechert's signature. Bruce Garland's note indicates that Dechert was affiliated with the Boston Public Library and is mentioned in Edwin Wolf's biography of A.S.W. Rosenbach (1960).

William Todd's copy of Gallup's review of Barker and Collins's Sequel

to An Enquiry; minor corrections in Todd's hand.

Typescript of Hayward's review of An Enquiry . A note in John Carter's hand indicates the review was written for The Listener but never printed.

Autograph manuscript possibly in Roberts's hand of a piece concerning a forged broadside of text from Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Proposal for Putting Reform to the Vote throughout the Kingdom" (1817). According to the piece, the broadside was titled "Universal Suffrage, 1811." The manuscript quotes Wise in confirming the broadside as a fake, ironically, due to an analysis of the punches used for the type and the size of the paper on which the forgery was printed.

Note in Partington's hand reads: "Enclosed a proof of the original & proper title. 'Forging Ahead' was an American bastardisation. / W.P."

Autograph and mimeographed notes concerning Wise's vandalism of volumes in the British Museum.

Handwritten and typed notes on Wise's vandalism for courses Ann Bowden taught at the University of Texas at Austin library and information science program

Notes on The Richard Gullible Papers . Also included is a note from Carter's wife to him that was originally laid into the fourth volume of his copy of Wise's Ashley Catalogue .

Photo reproductions of items from the collection at the University of Texas at Austin. See also F106.

Typed copy of the introduction to the sixth volume of Wise's scarce privately printed Ashley Library Catalogue (1925) written by A. Edward Newton. Reproduced by bibliographer Alfred P. Lee. Includes a note from Lee.

Typed copies of a 1931 letter to F. Page concerning Clement Shorter as well as a transcription of the text on Wise's bookplate. Source unknown.

Handwritten transcription of an extract of a piece printed in the 21 September 1895 issue of The Athenaeum about Literary Anecdotes of the Nineteenth Century by Wise and W. Robertson Nicoll (1895).

Handwritten transcription of an excerpt on the British Museum Library's acquisition of Wise's Ashley Library from bibliographer A.J.K. Esdaile's 1946 history of the Library, written prior to the discovery of Wise's vandalism of the Library's volumes by William Todd and D.F. Foxon in the 1950s.

Includes typewritten letter to Gosse with autograph corrections. Also contains 1904 Gosse letter to Wise and three handwritten poems originally laid into Garland's first edition copy of Gosse's The autumn garden with additional notes by Garland.

Letter concerns a potential forgery; Wise writes that "the handwriting in the book is most certainly not that of the poet [Algernon Charles Swinburne]. Also he would never have written in the third person…I cannot suggest who 'A.S.' can be. Probably no one, for the thing is clearly a fake made for sale." The letter is addressed on the envelope and at the foot of the letter to Edward B. Hall, but the salutation reads "Mr. Hill."

Letter to book collector Paul Lemperly (1858-1939).

Includes three outgoing letters from Wise to Roberts and one letter from Roberts. The correspondence concerns Shelley publications and typography.

Typescript copy. The letter was laid into Carter's copy of the Wise's Swinburne bibliography (volume 1); the letter refers to a forgery of Swinburne's "Dead Love" (not Wise's own forgery). (See also Wise's proofs of the bibliography, Series II., F36.)

Includes an autograph letter from Wise and a transcript, as well as clippings of two of Wise's letters-to-the editor of the Times Literary Supplement on forgeries.

This letter to Adams, the assistant director of the Barker Texas History Center, from a nephew of librarian and scholar Fannie E. Ratchford (1887-1974) discusses Ratchford's collection and work.

Letter to bookseller Alan Thomas.