DELL, Robert Edward, 1865-1940, journalist

Material for a biography of Robert Edward Dell, 1895-1973, collected by his elder daughter Sylvia Blelloch in the 1960s, notably family correspondence, 1854-1940, mainly between Dell and his wife and daughters; general correspondence to Robert and Sylvia Dell, 1889-1973, with correspondents including Edmund Bishop concerning Catholic affairs, Clifford Sharpe, Dorothy Frances Buxton (wife of Charles Roden Buxton), Joseph Cailleux (French Minister of Finance), Herbert George Wells, Rabbi Stephen Wise (Rabbi of the Free Synagogue, New York), Maxim Litvinov (Soviet Foreign Minister), Edgar Algernon Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, Viscount Cecil of Chelwood (President of the League of Nations Union), and Diana Sheean (wife of James Vincent Sheean); letters and press cuttings relating to the publication of Germany unmasked (Martin Hopkinson, London, 1934) and The Geneva racket, 1920-1939 (Robert Hale, London, 1921), 1934-1973; papers concerning Dell's relations with Anatole France, [1913-1939], including typescript copies and photocopies of correspondence between the two, [1913-1922], material relating to the Cercle Carre, and a typescript of part of 'Anatole France as I knew him' by Dell, [1930-1939]; rough draft of an autobiography by Dell, [1930-1940]; typescript articles by Dell, 1900-1940, mainly concerning European politics following World War One, especially relating to Germany and France, and the build up to World War Two; published pamphlets and articles by Dell, 1899-1940, notably relating to Catholicism, foreign affairs, and the Geneva League Assembly; biographical material relating to Dell, [1950s-1960s], including papers relating to Dell's membership of the Fabian Society, his work as Editor of the Surrey Mirror , his work as a Catholic modernist, as well as photographs, certificates and correspondence of Sylvia Blelloch relating to her research.

Born 1865; joined Fabian Society, 1889; received into the Roman Catholic Church, 1897; Editor, Surrey Mirror , 1892-1900; Editor, Review of the Week , 1900-1902; Acting Editor, The Connoisseur , 1902-[1906]; settled in Paris as a journalist and picture dealer, 1906, where he remained throughout the war; Paris correspondent, Manchester Guardian ; expelled from France, 1918; Foreign correspondent for the Manchester Guardian and other newspapers in Geneva, 1920-1921, Berlin, 1922-1924, Paris, 1925-1932, and Geneva, 1932-1939; his writings were controversialist from a variously Catholic modernist, socialist, pacifist and anti-fascist perspective; died in New York, 1940.
Publications: Anglo-French relations: the policy of the Union of Democratic Control (Union of Democratic Control, London, 1920 ); Germany unmasked: on Germany under the National-Socialist regime (Martin Hopkinson, London, 1934); My second country, France (John Lane, London and New York, 1920); Socialism and personal liberty (Leonard Parsons, London, 1921); The Catholic Church and the social question (Catholic Press Co, London, 1899); translator of Disestablishment in France (T Fisher Unwin, London, 1906); The left bank of the Rhine (Union of Democratic Control, 1919); The Geneva racket, 1920-1939 (Robert Hale, London, 1921).

Arranged in sections as follows: family correspondence, general correspondence, papers relating to Anatole France, autobiography, typescript articles, published articles, and biographical material.

Open.

Printed handlist and on-line catalogue available.

Sources: British Library of Political and Economic Science catalogue; British Library On-Line Public Access Catalogue 97. Compiled by Sarah Aitchison as part of the RSLP AIM25 project.

Copyright held by British Library of Political and Economic Science. Most documents may be photocopied.

Given by the family in 1967, 1968, 1970, 1972 and 1973. The Buxton correspondence was given via Professor Keith Robbins in 1971.

The BLPES holds a letters from Robert Dell in the papers of George Bernard Shaw (Ref: Shaw/16/9).