Sources:British Library of Political and Economic Science catalogue; Who's Who 1897-1996 (A & C Black, 1996); British Library On-Line Public Access Catalogue 97; Historical Manuscripts Commission National Register of Archives. Compiled by Sarah Aitchison as part of the RSLP AIM25 project.
Born 1925; educated Prague English Grammar School, St Albans County School, and Balliol Coll., Oxford University; Private, Czechoslovakian Armoured Brigade, BLA, 1944-45; on staff of London School of Economics, 1949-84, where he received a PhD in Social Anthropology, 1961, and became Professor of Philosophy, 1962-84; Visiting Fellow at Harvard, 1952-53; Co-editor of
Publications:
Papers of Professor Ernest Andr Gellner, [1946]-1996, notably correspondence with friends and colleagues, [1946-1995], including Professor Sir Isaiah Berlin, Professor (Avram) Noam Chomsky, Professor Bernard Rowland Crick, Professor John Horsley Russell Davis, Professor Ralf Dahrendorf, Baron Dahrendorf of Clare Market, Professor Sir Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard, Professor Sir Raymond (William) Firth, Professor (Walter) Bryce Gallie, Sir Victor Gollancz, Professor John Rankine (Jack) Goody, Professor Richard Mervyn Hare, Professor Sir Edmund Ronald Leach, Professor Claude Lvi-Strauss, Anne Mary Lonsdale, Professor Alan Donald James Macfarlane, (Jean) Iris Murdoch, Professor Sir Karl (Raimund) Popper, Professor Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre of Glanton, Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, Professor Gilbert Ryle, Professor Edward W Said, Charles Percy Snow, Baron Snow, George Soros, Professor Alfred Stepan, Professor (Ann) Marilyn Strathern, and Professor Sir Bernard Arthur Owen Williams; material relating to Gellner's teaching work at the London School of Economics and Cambridge University, 1977-1989, including individual files relating to his PhD students, 1977-1984, and correspondence with Macfarlane regarding the administration of the Anthropology Department at Cambridge, 1988-1989; papers created during Gellner's time as Director of the Centre for the Study of Nationalism at the central European University, 1992-1996, notably correspondence with students, material relating to conferences, Senate papers, documents concerning the financial future of the Centre, details of project funding and grant proposals, and correspondence relating to the Erasmus Chair at Warsaw University; material relating to field trips to Morocco, [1950-1968], probably in connection with Gellner's PhD thesis, including maps, manuscripts, correspondence, field notes, research notes, reports and photographs; manuscripts, 1957-1995, some with corrections, of Gellner's published books and articles, as well as unpublished material, on subjects including anthropology, Islam, social science, nationalism, politics and religion, imperialism, Marxism, the London School of Economics, philosophy, history, culture, psychoanalysis, Eastern Europe, and Russia; offprints and newspaper cuttings of reviews of Gellner's work, 1957-1995, and reviews written by Gellner concerning the work of others, 1960-1995; papers relating to the publishing of books, [1957-1996], including proofs, contracts with publishers, and correspondence; tapes and films, 1982-1990, mainly comprising lectures on philosophy by Gellner; obituaries and papers relating to the memorial service in Prague, 1995.
Unsorted.
The Gellner papers were given by the family in May 1996, February and November 1997, March 1999, and May 2000. Material relating to the Central European University was transported from Prague by Gaye Woolven in November 1998. Papers relating to Gellner's students were given by the LSE Philosophy Department, via Professor Watkins, in December 1996.
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Copyright retained by the Gellner family.
Temporary list available.
The BLPES holds further material relating to Ernest Gellner in Coll Misc 0606, the papers of Charles Anthony Raven Crosland (Ref: Crosland/10/3), the papers of Professor Morris Ginsberg (Ref: Ginsberg/7/12), the papers of Professor Imre Lakatos (Ref: Lakatos/13/314 and 14/10), the papers of Professor Michael Joseph Oakeshott, and the papers of Dr Audrey Isabel Richards (Ref: Richards/16/26).
McMaster University Library, Ontario, Canada, holds correspondence between Gellner and Bertrand Russell, 1958-1964 (Ref: Russell Archives).