University Archive and Special Collections: John Lane collection
The John Lane Collection features both copied and unique, original items from the archive of the publisher John Lane.
Collection history
John Lane was a co-founder of the publisher ‘Bodley Head’ which published the work of many celebrated literary figures in the late Victorian period and the early decades of the twentieth century.
Material in the Archive includes work by W.B. Yeats, Ezra Pound, E. Nesbit, Vita Sackville-West, D.H. Lawrence and Aubrey Beardsley.
In addition to letters and other correspondence from many notable authors, the archive includes:
- Photocopies of the letters etc contained in 'The Yellow Book' box
- Letters relating to The Love of an Unknown Soldier, a work published anonymously by Coningsby Dawson
- Photocopies of the following manuscripts: G.K.Chesterton's Orthodoxy; Frederick Greenwood's Imagination in Dreams; and Stephen Phillip's Armageddon.
- A box of Lane business material; the content of which includes sporadic accounts and one large original ledger.
Cover of The Yellow Book: an anthology. Edited by Fraser Harrison. April 1894 - April 1897. Cover illustration, of two masked figures, by Aubrey Beardsley.
In 2009, the Archive was supplemented by a further donation of associated volumes published by Lane.
Collection catalogues
A full list of contents is available, compiled by the Archive's previous curator Michael Rhodes.
Accessing the collection
The Archive is available for consultation and research, offering an invaluable collection of manuscript material, autographed letters, readers’ reports, catalogues, and publisher’s correspondence.
Material is of particular value for researchers in:
- British publishing history
- Late Victorian and Edwardian literature
- Literary modernism
The originals of the photocopied materials are in the possession of the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas and no copying of our photocopies is permitted. To obtain copies or publish excerpts of this material, researchers must seek permission from the Librarian of the Ransom Center.