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Finding Aid for the Percy H. Muir papers, ca. 1919-1970
1430
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Title: Percy H. Muir papers
Date (inclusive): ca. 1919-1970
Collection number: 1430
Creator:
Muir, Percy H. (Percy Horace), 1894-1979
Extent:
4 boxes (2 linear ft.)
1 oversize box.
Abstract: Percy H. (Percy Horace) Muir (1894-1979) was a prominent twentieth-century antiquarian bookseller, book collector, and bibliographer.
He joined the London antiquarian booksellers Elkin Mathews, Ltd. in 1930, and remained with this firm until his death. This
collection contains materials relating to Muir's published and unpublished works, together with a small quantity of papers
relating to Elkin Mathews. The collection is primarily comprised of Muir's loose-leaf notes on British imprints, together
with the manuscript of an unpublished novel.
Language: Finding aid is written in
English.
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library, Department
of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Open for research. Advance notice required for access. Contact the UCLA Library, Department
of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library,
Department of Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of
the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the
copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC
Regents do not hold the copyright.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Purchase, Richard Ford, 1985.
Processed by Helen McManus in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), with assistance from Kelley Wolfe Bachli,
2008.
[Identification of item], Percy H. Muir papers (Collection 1430). Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research
Library, UCLA.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
4233462
Born in London on December 17, 1894, Percy Muir began his career as a bookseller in 1920. He joined the London antiquarian
booksellers Elkin Mathews in 1930, and would remain with that firm until his death in Norfolk on November 24, 1979.
Muir was an influential figure among booksellers and book collectors around the world. As president of the Antiquarian Booksellers
Association in Britain from 1945-1947, Muir chaired the first conference of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers
(ILAB) in 1947. He then served as president of the ILAB from 1950 until 1952. At the end of his term in this office, he was
elected Life President of Honor.
Muir's publications include several bibliographies and contributions to bibliographical journals such as
The Library. He composed numerous letters, essays, and addresses on book collecting, including the immensely popular
Book Collecting as a Hobby: Letters to Everyman (1944) and its sequel in 1949. Muir was a founding member of the Editorial Board of Book Collector, and wrote many reviews
for this journal. His
Minding My Own Business (1956) was both a history of the firm Elkin Mathews and an autobiographical account of Muir's career from the early 1920s
to World War II.
This collection contains materials relating to the published and unpublished works of bookseller, book collector, and bibliographer
Percy Muir, together with a small quantity of papers relating to the antiquarian bookselling firm Elkin Mathews, Ltd.
The bulk of this collection is comprised of Muir's loose-leaf notes on British imprints. Muir aspired to produce a dictionary
of imprints that would trace the links between printing or publishing businesses over time. This project began ca. 1931,
inspired by a client's query, and was apparently never completed to Muir's satisfaction. He discusses some preliminary findings
in the 1933 essay "English Imprints After 1640," published in The Library, but the dictionary represented in this collection
remains unpublished.
Each "entry" in the imprints notes contains the following information: imprint (printing or publishing business) at head of
page, followed by a list of publication dates, and the address at which the business was found at each date. These listings
are corroborated with reference to various bibliographies and dictionaries of publishers.
The collection contains the manuscript (178 handwritten pages) of an untitled and unpublished novel, the tale of a young man's
entry into the book trade. The novel appears to be semi-autobiographical, although it is written in the third person.
The imprints notes and novel manuscript are written on the verso of various earlier notes, manuscripts, typescripts, printed
proofs, and calling cards. Of particular interest, and scattered throughout, are: Muir's 1954 work, English Children's books:
1600-1900 (the chapter entitled "A Monstrous Regiment" is particularly well-represented), in various stages from manuscript
to printed pages; Muir's notes on European Music publishers, in a format similar to the British Imprints notes; and various
anecdotes in Muir's hand. A lengthy fragment, in pencil, of a translation of Friedrich Chrysander's G. F. Händel can be found
on the verso of p. 165-178 of the novel manuscript.
Also included in the collection are several invoices from the Elkin Mathews business, and a suggested "arrangement of sold-cards."
Arranged in the following series:
- 1) Imprints. (4.5 boxes)
- Muir's loose-leaf notes for a dictionary of British imprints, arranged alphabetically by printer or publisher name.
- 2) Unpublished Novel. (3 folders)
- Muir's unfinished manuscript of a novel about a young man entering the bookselling trade.
- 3) Business Records. (2 folders)
- Invoices from Elkin Mathews, Ltd., arranged by date, and notes about the arrangement of sold-cards.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Muir, Percy H. (Percy Horace), 1894-1979--Archives.
Antiquarian booksellers--England--Archival resources.
At Indiana University's Lilly Library: