Exhibitions

Exhibitions > Literary Champions

Walter de la Mare and T. Sturge Moore: Literary Champions

The writers Walter de la Mare (1873-1956) and Thomas Sturge Moore (1870-1944) were acquaintances and almost exact contemporaries. Both were poets and literary critics in addition to following other bents: in Sturge Moore’s case, designing; in De la Mare’s, writing short stories and novels and anthologising. Both men had personal libraries, and both annotated their books – both their own writings and those of others.

In 2009, Senate House Library was fortunate to acquire the De la Mare Family Archive of Walter de la Mare’s Printed Oeuvre, comprising some 420 titles by and about Walter de la Mare. This complements De la Mare’s working library, held since 2005. In 2010, the Institute of English Studies at the University of London acquired and placed in Senate House Library the Thomas Sturge Moore collection: nearly 140 items from the personal library of T. Sturge Moore, including editions of his own works.

Both collections were catalogued in 2010 to open them up to users. It is our pleasure to exhibit selections from them now. The exhibition runs from October to December 2010.