Tapley-Soper Papers

The collections consists of Mrs Tapley-Soper's notes on historical characters as background material to her studies, together with her written work on the matter of Othello and other Shakespearian controversies, including the Shakespeare authorship debate.

Gwendoline E. Tapley-Soper (d1950), amateur poet, painter and historian, was the daughter of the Rev'd William Frederic Connor (1852-1921), a former Church Missionary Society missionary in Damascus, Jerusalem and Cairo, later rector of King's Nympton, Devon (1905-1921) and Thomasina Jane Gowdy, daughter of Robert Thomas Gowdy, Head Master of a school in Ireland. She married H Tapley Soper, a local Devon historian and University Librarian at the University College South West, and lived at Wixels, Topsham, in 1944, when her first book of poems Dawn and Sunset at Topsham (Exeter, 1944) was published. This was followed by Springtime in Devon (Exeter, 1946), by which time she had produced several historical works, all seemingly unpublished, and was living in Wonford Road, Exeter. Her historical papers, which include material relating to her textual work on Shakespeare's Othello, were presented to the University by the then custodian, Dr Long, in 1994.

The files are arranged thematically, by subject

Usual EUL arrangements apply

The collection was temporarily deposited in the University Library in 1985. The part relating to Othello was presented to the University in 1994.

Unlisted

Usual EUL arrangements apply