Updating W. H. Hudson's Bibliography, II: Correspondence and Books

Updating W. H. Hudson's Bibliography, II: Correspondence and Books By Dennis Shrubsall Dunster, Somerset, England CORRESPONDENCE William Henry Hudson (1841-1922) is arguably the most enigmatic British author of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Unlike his friend the novelist George Gissing, or his admired American predecessor Henry David Thoreau , he kept no diary or journal; and though Hudson's books speak plainly of their author, not unexpectedly they lack the more personal aspects essential to a comprehensive understanding of his life and character. Moreover, occasionally in his books he uses pseudonyms for persons and places, sometimes avoids naming them altogether, and his dates are sometimes misleading. Hudson sought no biography; he resented potential biographers and deliberately erected obstacles in their path. Foremost among these measures was his burning of private papers and extensive correspondence. Furthermore, for his executors Ernest Bell and Wynnard Hooper he left explicit instructions to destroy any manuscripts, notebooks, letters and scraps of written paper which survived him (except those specifically marked for publication or to be preserved, which, one gathers, were negligible). The survival of but a few letters written to Hudson indicates the thoroughness with which Bell and Hooper discharge their obligation to him. Fortunately for posterity, however, some—at last count 1,299·—letters written by Hudson have survived, presumably because they were neither known nor available to his executors. Some 815 of them are listed by John R. Payne on pages 4 and 5 of his excellent W. H. Hudson: A Bibliography (Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1977). To librarians, archivists, fellow biographers, scholars and friends I am grateful for information, which, during my own protracted and continuing research has enabled me to identify some further 429 holographs and 55 transcriptions, as follows:2 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 2 additional letters to Professor Spencer F. Baird during 1866-1868 (making a total of 8 for this period) 4 letters to Professor Spencer F. Baird (1869) 437 Shrubsall: Updating W. H. Hudson's Bibliography, II UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK (Elmer Holmes Bobst Library) 1 letter to Mrs. Griffiths (including a receipt signed by Hudson for 3 months rent of her flat in Hudson's London house) 1 letter to Mr. George Simpkins (1910) 1 letter to Thomas Seccombe 1 letter to Muriel (surname omitted) 1 letter to Thomas (probably the poet, writer and critic Edward Thomas) 1 post card to Milton (surname indistinct; could be Bonner) 1921 1 post card to Edward Garnett (1922) NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY (The Berg Collection) 17 letters to George Gissing (1893-1898)3 7 letters to T. Fisher Unwin (1891-1904) CITY OF MANCHESTER CENTRAL LIBRARY 59 letters to Mrs. Emma Hubbard (earliest dated 1894) 19 letters to Mrs. Eliza Phillips (earliest dated 1890) 17 letters to Miss Linda Gardiner 10 letters to his wife, Emily Hudson 1 incomplete letter to an unnamed correspondent, containing in text, Hudson's sketch of a sparrow-hawk WEST SUSSEX RECORDS OFFICE 18 letters to Wilfrid Scawen Blunt4 THE ROYAL SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS 36 letters to J. Rudge Harding OBE (1906-1922)5 An additional 20 letters to Mrs. Eliza Phillips 22 letters to unnamed correspondents (1894-1904) Photocopies of transcriptions of 27 letters and extracts to Miss Linda Gardiner 438 Shrubsall: Updating W. H. Hudson's Bibliography, II EDWARD GREY INSTITUTE OF FIELD ORNITHOLOGY (Oxford) 15 letters to Mary Trevelyan (1916-1922) THE BRITISH LIBRARY 2 letters to Ralph Hodgson 2 letters to Dr. Alfred Rüssel Wallace THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND 1 letter to an unknown gentleman, probably the editor of the International Review (1919) THE HOUSE OF LORDS RECORDS OFFICE 1 letter to Herbert Louis Samuel, later Viscount Samuel (1899) THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON 7 letters to Dr. P. L. Sclater, secretary of the society (1869-1870)6 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE 2 letters to the Royal Society of Literature (1912)7 THE ROYAL LITERARY FUND 3 letters to the Royal Literary Fund (1904-1909)8 TRINITY COLLEGE LIBRARY, CAMBRIDGE 2 letters to Frederic William Henry Myers (1893) UNIVERISITY OF LEEDS 2 letters to Mrs. Emma Hubbard 439 Shrubsall: Updating W. H. Hudson's Bibliography, II UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM 1 letter to Francis...