2 letters from H J C Grierson to Dear Sir

The letters are:

• 1 x ts dated 23 October 1944, written 12 Regent Terrace, Edinburgh, and addressed to 'Dear Sir'. Grierson suggests that 'you will look at that interesting book' entitled 'Sir Walter Scott's Friends' by Florence MacCunn (1909). In it 'you will find that it was Mrs Ann Murray Keith [...] who declared that she recognised stories she had told Scott'.
• 1 x ms dated 30 October 1944, written 12 Regent Terrace, Edinburgh, and addressed to 'Dear Sir'. Grierson writes that he cannot 'undertake any further research into Scott stories'.

Scottish literary scholar editor, and literary critic, Herbert John Clifford Grierson, was born in Lerwick, Shetland, on 16 January 1886. He studied at King's College, University of Aberdeen, and at Christ Church, Oxford. On graduating from Oxford he was appointed Professor of English Literature at the University of Aberdeen, where he taught from 1894 to 1915. He then became Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature at the University of Edinburgh until 1935.

He was interest in the metaphysical poets, such as John Donne, and his particular field was English poetry of the 17th century. He was also interested in Sir Walter Scott. His twelve volume edition of Letters of Sir Walter Scott (1932-1937) was noteworthy, but he was also interested in modern Scottish poetry.

He was Rector of Edinburgh University from 1936 to 1939, and was the first holder of a Chair at the University to be elected by the student body as Rector. Sir Herbert John Clifford Grierson, referred to as Herbert J. C. Grierson, died on 19 February 1960 in Cambridge.

Open to bona fide researchers, but please contact repository for details in advance of visit.

Acquired by donation. Accession no: E2014.45.

Catalogued by Graeme D. Eddie 3 June 2014

The holdings of Special Collections, Edinburgh University Library, may be checked for other correspondence by Sir Herbert J. C. Grierson.