Fonds F2353 - Desmond Neill fonds

Fonds consists mainly of correspondence regarding the editing and production of the 3rd revision and enlarged edition of Halkett and Laing’s A Dictionary of Anonymous and Pseudonymous Publications in the English Language, 1475-1640 (Harlow, England: Longman, 1980), edited by John Horden. Neill was a member of the editorial committee for the 3rd revision, headed by Horden, the director of the Institute of Bibliography and Textual Criticism at the University of Leeds. Commonly referred to as “Halkett and Laing” after its original authors, Samuel Halkett (1814-71) and John Laing (1809-80), the dictionary was first published in four volumes between 1882 and 1888. A revised edition in nine volumes, edited by J. Kennedy, W. A. Smith, and A. F. Kennedy, was published between 1926 and 1962. Only one volume of the 3rd revision was published. (Source: Leah Orr, “The History, Uses, and Dangers of Halkett and Laing,” Papers of the Bibliographical Society of North America 107, no. 2 (2013): 193-240.)

Fonds also includes ephemera related to royalty; and textual records related to The Hereditary Right to the Crown of England Asserted (1713) and to bibliography in general.