Papers of Rachel Annand Taylor

The collection comprises 4 volumes of holograph poems by Rachel Annand Taylor, with enclosures, 1899 - 1908. Most of the poems are dated and titled, and many, though not all, have been published. The fourth volume, which is undated, contains a pencil-written work called The Muse of Ellayne. A dramatic Lyric

Rachel Annand Taylor was a student at Aberdeen University from 1894 until 1897, when attending Aberdeen Training Centre for Teachers. She was one of the first women to take a course in Arts after the introduction of the regulations of 1892 admitting women to graduation, although she did not graduate. She taught for some time in Aberdeen before her marriage to Alexander C. Taylor in 1901, after which she went to Dundee and later to London, where she died in 1960.

She published four volumes of poetry, Poems (London: Bodley Head, 1904); Rose and Vine (London: Elkin Mathews, 1909); The Hours of Fiametta (London: Elkin Mathews, 1910); and The End of Fiametta (London: Richards, 1923). In addition, she produced three studies, Aspects of the Italian Renaissance (London: Richards, 1923); Leonardo the Florentine (London: Richards, 1927) and Dunbar, the poet and his period (London: Faber, 1931). In 1943 Aberdeen University awarded her an honorary LL.D, on the 50th anniversary of the admission of women to the University. Appreciations of her work by Sir Herbert Grierson and Alexander Keith have been published in the Aberdeen University Review, 30 (1942-1944), 152-156; and 31 (1944-1946), 211.

The poems are arranged chronologically, and listed by title, or where this is absent, by the first line of the verse.

Open, subject to signature accepting conditions of use at reader registration sheet

Gifted to the University in 1943, by Alexander Keith, MA, LLD, by whom it had been purchased from a London bookseller.

Descriptive list available in the Reading Room, Special Libraries and Archives, University of Aberdeen (e-mail: speclib@abdn.ac.uk)

Very brief collection level description available on Aberdeen University Library Catalogue, accessible online http://www.abdn.ac.uk/diss/library/

No copies known

Subject to the condition of the original, copies may be supplied for private research use only on receipt of a signed undertaking to comply with current copyright legislation.

Permission to make any published use of material from the collection must be sought in advance from the Head of Special Libraries and Archives (e-mail: speclib@abdn.ac.uk) and, where appropriate, from the copyright owner. Where possible, assistance will be given in identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material.

This material has been appraised in line with normal procedures

No accruals expected

Letter from Rachel Annand Taylor (1876 - 1960) to Wilmot Vaughan, Piccadilly, London, 4 Dec 1910 (GB 231 MS 3273)

Letters from Rachel Annand Taylor (1876 - 1960) and Marion Angus (1865 - 1946) to Nan Shepherd (1893 - 1981), author 1930 - 1959 (GB 231 MS 3036). Deposited in the National Library of Scotland, Manuscripts Division Letters (11) from George Blake, 1931 - 1933 (MS 20436); letters (38) from Gilbert Murray, 1909 - 1956 (MS 20436); papers including some literary MSS, 1893 - c 1954 (MSS 20404-35); papers and letters to Sir Herbert Grierson, 1895 - 1946 (MS 9328); letters to Patrick Geddes, 1907 - 1932 (MS 10572)

Deposited in Oxford University: Bodleian Library, Special Collections and Western Manuscripts Letters to Gilbert Murray, 1909 - 1956 (MSS Gilbert Murray)

Deposited in Manchester University: John Rylands Library Letters (26) from Andre Raffalovich, c 1907 - c 1930 (Box HR D)

For further details see Location register of 20th century English literary MSS, ed. by David Sutton, 2 vols (London: British Library, 1988)

Many of the poems appearing in this collection are published in Rachel Annand Taylor's Poems (London: Bodley Head, 1904); Rose and Vine (London: Elkin Mathews, 1909); The Hours of Fiametta (London: Elkin Mathews, 1910); and The End of Fiametta (London: Richards, 1923).

This material is original