LOW, David Morrice (1890-1972)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0100 KCLCA K/PP70
Held at	: King's College London College Archives   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/library/archivespec/ ›
Full title	: LOW, David Morrice (1890-1972)
Date(s)	: 1911-1952
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 3 boxes
Name of creator(s)	: Low | David Morrice | 1890-1972 | writer

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born, 1890; educated at Westminster School (scholar); Oriel College Oxford (scholar); 1st Class Moderations, 1911; 2nd Class Literae Humaniores, 1914; BA, 1914; MA, 1915; Assistant Master, Marlborough College, 1914-1918; Westminster School, 1919-1921; Rector of Kelvinside Academy, Glasgow, 1921-1929; temporary Junior Assistant, Air Ministry, 1941-1943; temporary Senior Assistant, Foreign Office, 1943-1945; Lecturer in Department of Classics and Sub-Dean of the Faculty of Arts, King's College London, 1945-1957; Chairman, English Association, 1959-1964; Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature; died, 1972. Publications: with B V F Brackenbury, Elementary French Exercises (1917); Kelvinside Academy, 1878-1928; Gibbon's Journal (1929); Edward Gibbon (1937); London is London (1949); Virgil and the English Augustans (a paper read to the Virgil Society, 1952); Norman Douglas, A Selection from his Works (1955); A Century of Writers, 1855-1955 (1955); Essays and Studies Collected for the English Association (1955); abridged Edward Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1960); Trends in English Pronunciation (1960). Contributor to: Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature; Encyclopaedia Britannica. Novels: Twice Shy (1933); This Sweet Work (1935). Translations: Natalia Ginzburg, Voices in the Evening (1963) and Family Sayings (1967); Ercole Patti, Roman Chronicle (1965).

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Notes and papers, 1911-1952, of David Morrice Low, including scrapbook of news cuttings and pictures, 1911-1913; printed Marlborough school lists, 1914-1918, and extracts from school rules, 1916; list of Oriel men on service; notes on Italy and Latin, 1924-1925 and undated; notes on teaching classics and mathematics [1914-1921]; notes, manuscripts and typescripts for novels or short stories; material relating to Low's novel Twice Shy (1933) including notes, reviews, and a contract with Chatto & Windus; other material relating to Chatto & Windus, 1927-1933; notes on Greece and Nice; manuscript notes and letter, 1927, from V H Collins on 'Scotticisms'; manuscript personal notes on his mother, childhood, first memories, use of language and attitude to women; typescript note on role as examiner of English, 1940; notebooks on Edward Gibbon, some dated 1934-1935, from various sources including Gibbon's journal and letters; printed catalogue of Gibbon's library, 1934, and typescript essay on it; photographs of portraits of Gibbon and places associated with him; typescripts on 'The Grand Tour'; notes on aeronautical terminology in Spanish and Portuguese [1941-1943]; offprint of E M Wilson, 'La Estroga Sexta de la Cancion a la Flor de Guido', Miscelanea (1952), dedicated to Low; Enid Marx, The Pigeon Ace [undated].

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
Mostly English; some Latin, Greek, French, Spanish and Portuguese

System of arrangement:

The collection is arranged in the following sections: notebooks; typescript and manuscript fragment of a story concerning a teacher; notes for Twice Shy; reviews of Twice Shy; Chatto and Windus; typescripts; notes on Greece; notes on Nice; manuscript fragments concerning Albert Edward Sceefe; manuscript notes and letters from V H Collins; manuscript personal notes; notebooks on Gibbon; Gibbon's library, portraits and places; typescripts on the Grand Tour; notes on aeronautical terminology; scrapbook of news cuttings and pictures; printed material.

Conditions governing access:

Open, subject to signature of reader's undertaking form.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Director of Archive Services, King's College London.

Finding aids:

Typescript list available in reading room at King's College London Archives.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Acquired from Low's family.

Allied Materials

Related material:

Reading University Library holds letters from Low in the Chatto and Windus correspondence files, 1926-1928 (in MS2444); correspondence of Low, 1930-1935, including c14 letters from him (in Jonathan Cape General files); files of correspondence relating to works by Norman Douglas, 1951-1952, including three letters from Low to Douglas, and files of correspondence relating to works by Low, 1951-1970, including letters from Low (in Chatto and Windus and Hogarth Press General Correspondence). Sussex University Library, Manuscript Collections, holds 12 letters from Low to Kingsley Martin, 1931-1962 (Ref: SxMs11/14/1). Glasgow University Library holds a letter from Low to W R Scott, 1936 (Ref: MS.Gen.1293(0)14). Oxford University, Bodleian Library, Department of Western Manuscripts, holds correspondence with Graham Pollard, 1927-1971 (Ref: MSS Pollard). Royal Society of Literature holds nine letters from Low, 1958-1967. Buckinghamshire County Record Office, Aylesbury, holds a fragment of a letter from Low to Theodora Roscoe, 1962 (in D115/126/13).

National Register of Archives: Click here to view NRA record

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Rachel Kemsley as part of the RSLP AIM25 project. Sources: brief description in King's College London Manuscripts and Private Papers: A Select Guide (1982); Who's Who; British Library online catalogue; National Register of Archives; Location register of twentieth-century English literary manuscripts (1988).

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Feb 2001