Life Stories from St John’s: the famous & the forgotten

Library exhibition 9 September – 9 December 2022 Introduction For over 450 years the lifeblood of St John’s College has been the people who live and work inside its walls. Some have dedicated a good part of their lives to this College, while others have just passed through. Many have become famous and even moreContinue reading “Life Stories from St John’s: the famous & the forgotten”

Librarian’s Pick #5: 19th century letters from an alumnus

Over the course of Trinity Term 2020, the library staff at St. John’s College will be taking you on a ‘tour’ of some of their favourites among our special collections. Every Monday, we will upload a new note on the item of the week. Read on to discover more about our chosen items… ‘I haveContinue reading “Librarian’s Pick #5: 19th century letters from an alumnus”

Librarian’s Pick #1: MS 325

Over the course of Trinity Term 2020, the library staff at St. John’s College will be taking you on a ‘tour’ of some of their favourites among our special collections. Every Monday, we will upload a new note on the item of the week. Read on to discover more about our chosen items… ‘Soften yourContinue reading “Librarian’s Pick #1: MS 325”

Cataloguing A.E. Housman’s Personal Papers

A full and digitised description of the Housman papers at St John’s is in the works. Connie Bettison, St John’s library trainee from 2016-17, writes about her experience beginning the digital cataloguing process. A.E. Housman A.E. Housman (1859-1936) is best known today for his poetry but in his own time he was highly regarded asContinue reading “Cataloguing A.E. Housman’s Personal Papers”

“excuse the scrawl”: literary letters from St. John’s special collections

Alongside collections of manuscripts and early printed books, St. John’s College’s Special Collections include personal papers of a number of well-known literary figures: Robert Graves, A.E. Housman, Jane Austen, Philip Larkin, Spike Milligan and Professor J.B. Leishman. Included in these papers is a great deal of correspondence, occasionally between other literary figures, or concerning literaryContinue reading ““excuse the scrawl”: literary letters from St. John’s special collections”

Correspondence of Faber & Faber and Letter to ‘The Times Literary Supplement’ (1954), in the Robert Graves Collection

             St John’s College Robert Graves Trust received 26 boxes of archival material from Graves’s home in Deya, Mallorca, on 3rd March 2008, bequeathed by Graves’s widow, Beryl. The collection contains those papers remaining in Deya at the time of her death in 2003, and consists of drafts of Graves’sContinue reading “Correspondence of Faber & Faber and Letter to ‘The Times Literary Supplement’ (1954), in the Robert Graves Collection”

Jane and George Austen, Letters (MS 279)

This collection of six letters, either written by or relating to the novelist Jane Austen, is one of the most interesting items held in St John’s College Library. George Austen, Jane’s father (and the writer of one of the letters), and her brothers James and Henry all studied at and became Fellows of St John’s,Continue reading “Jane and George Austen, Letters (MS 279)”