Theodore Deodatus Nathaniel Besterman (22 November 1904 – 10 November 1976) was a Polish-born British

psychical researcher Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena (extrasensory perception, telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis (also called telekinesis), and psychometry) and other paranormal claims, for example, those related to near- ...

bibliographer Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliography ...

, biographer, and translator. In 1945 he became the first editor of the ''

Journal of Documentation The ''Journal of Documentation'' is a double-blind peer-reviewed academic journal covering theories, concepts, models, frameworks, and philosophies in information science. The journal publishes scholarly articles, research reports, and critical r ...

''. From the 1950s he devoted himself to studies of the works of

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his '' nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity—e ...

Biography

Theodore Deodatus Nathaniel Besterman was born in 1904 in

Łódź Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of ca ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, but he relocated to London during his youth. In 1925 he was elected chairman of the British Federation of Youth Movements. During the 1930s Besterman lectured at the London School of Librarianship, and edited and published many works of, and about, bibliography. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Besterman served in the British

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

and the Army Bureau of Current Affairs. Afterwards he worked for

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...

, working on international methods of bibliography. During the 1950s Besterman began to concentrate on collecting, translating and publishing the writings of

, including much previously unpublished correspondence. This was to occupy him for the rest of his life. He lived at Voltaire's house in Geneva, where he initiated the

Institut et Musée Voltaire The Institut et Musée Voltaire is a museum in Geneva dedicated to the life and works of Voltaire. The museum is housed in Les Délices, which was Voltaire's home from 1755 until 1760. The property was bought by the city of Geneva in 1929, and th ...

and published 107 volumes of Voltaire's letters and a series of books entitled "Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century". The Forum for Modern Language Studies termed Besterman's edition of the correspondence "the greatest single piece of Voltairian scholarship for over a century.". During the final years of his life, Besterman negotiated with the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, which culminated in his naming the university his residuary legatee and arranging for the posthumous transfer of his extensive collection of books and manuscripts, which included many collective editions, to an elegant room in the

Taylor Institution The Taylor Institution (commonly known as the Taylorian) is the Oxford University library dedicated to the study of the languages of Europe. Its building also includes lecture rooms used by the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, Univ ...

(the university centre for modern languages), which has space for 9000 volumes. This was renamed the Voltaire Room. After Besterman’s death on 10 November 1976, the

Voltaire Foundation The Voltaire Foundation is a research department of the University of Oxford, founded by Theodore Besterman in the 1970s. It publishes the definitive edition of the ''Complete Works of Voltaire'' (''Œuvres complètes de Voltaire''), as well as ' ...

was vested permanently in the University of Oxford. Besterman in 1969 published a detailed biography of Voltaire (541 pages + back matter), including many of Besterman's own translations of Voltaire's verse and correspondence. He relocated back to Britain during the late 1960s, and died in

Banbury Banbury is a historic market town on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, South East England. It had a population of 54,335 at the 2021 Census. Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding area of north Oxfordshir ...

in 1976. A

humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "human ...

, in death, Besterman left a significant legacy to the British Humanist Association (now

Humanists UK Humanists UK, known from 1967 until May 2017 as the British Humanist Association (BHA), is a charitable organisation which promotes secular humanism and aims to represent "people who seek to live good lives without religious or superstitious b ...

) to maintain the Voltaire Lecture for many years thereafter, exploring ‘any aspect of scientific or philosophical thought or human activity as affected by or with particular reference to

humanism Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "human ...

’. Humanists UK appoints a Voltaire Lecturer and awards them its prestigious Voltaire Medal each year.

Besterman/McColvin Awards

During the 1990s the Library Association (LA) in the United Kingdom used to award a Besterman Award every year for an outstanding bibliography. Now the LA's successor organisation, the

Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, since 2017 branded CILIP: The library and information association (pronounced ), is a professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge managers in the ...

(CILIP), gives Besterman/ McColvin Awards (often called the Besterman/McColvin Medals) for "outstanding works of electronic resources and e-books".

Psychical research

Between 1927 and 1935 he was the investigating officer for the

Society for Psychical Research The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) is a nonprofit organisation in the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is to understand events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal. It describes itself as the "first society to co ...

(SPR). He wrote two books on

Annie Besant Annie Besant ( Wood; 1 October 1847 – 20 September 1933) was a British socialist, theosophist, freemason, women's rights activist, educationist, writer, orator, political party member and philanthropist. Regarded as a champion of human ...

and many works on psychical research. He was a critical researcher, and became skeptical of most of the paranormal phenomena reported in the SPR journal. In 1929, Besterman with Ina Jephson and Samuel Soal performed a series of experiments to test for

clairvoyance Clairvoyance (; ) is the magical ability to gain information about an object, person, location, or physical event through extrasensory perception. Any person who is claimed to have such ability is said to be a clairvoyant () ("one who sees cl ...

with controlled conditions.Berger, Arthur S. (1988). ''Lives and Letters in American Parapsychology: A Biographical History, 1850-1987''.

McFarland & Company McFarland & Company, Inc., is an American independent book publisher based in Jefferson, North Carolina, that specializes in academic and reference works, as well as general-interest adult nonfiction. Its president is Rhonda Herman. Its forme ...

. p. 94. The experiments involved the use of playing cards and sealed envelopes. The experiments were negative and did not reveal any evidence for clairvoyance. In 1930 his criticism of ''Modern Psychic Mysteries, Millesimo Castle, Italy'', a book on an Italian

medium Medium may refer to: Science and technology Aviation * Medium bomber, a class of war plane * Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design Communication * Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data * Medium ...

by Gwendolyn Kelley Hack, caused

Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...

to resign from the society. Doyle stated "... he work of the Societyis an evil influence— is anti-spiritualist." Besterman is most well known for his 1932 paper that examined the relationship between

eyewitness testimony Eyewitness testimony is the account a bystander or victim gives in the courtroom, describing what that person observed that occurred during the specific incident under investigation. Ideally this recollection of events is detailed; however, this is ...

and alleged

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...

phenomena. Besterman had a number of sitters attend a series of fake

séance A séance or seance (; ) is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word ''séance'' comes from the French word for "session", from the Old French ''seoir'', "to sit". In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, spea ...

s. He discovered that the sitters had failed to make accurate statements about the conditions and details of the séances and the phenomena that occurred. His study is often cited by skeptics to demonstrate that eyewitness testimony in relation to paranormal claims is unreliable. Besterman was skeptical of most physical mediums. In 1934, he visited Brazil to investigate the medium Carlos Mirabelli and detected trickery.Anderson, Rodger. (2006). ''Psychics, Sensitives and Somnambules: A Biographical Dictionary with Bibliographies''.

. p. 121.

Publications

Books * ''The Divining Rod: An Experimental and Psychological Investigation'', 1926 (with William F. Barrett) * ''Mind of Annie Besant'', 1927 * ''Some Modern Mediums'', 1930 * ''Inquiry into the Unknown'', 1934 * ''Mrs. Annie Besant, A Modern Prophet'', 1934 * ''Men Against Women: A Study of Sexual Relations'', 1934 *''On Dreams'', 1935 (editor) * ''The Beginnings of Systematic Bibliography'', 1935 * ''Water Divining'', 1938 * ''A World Bibliography of Bibliographies'', 1939 * ''The Love Letters of Voltaire to his Niece'', 1958 (editor and translator) * ''Voltaire's Correspondence'' 1953–65, 107 vols * '' Philosophical Dictionary'', 1971 (translator) * ''Crystal Gazing: A Study in the History, Distribution and Practice of Scrying'', 1965 * ''Collected Papers on the Paranormal'', 1968 * ''Voltaire'', 1969 Papers * — . (1926). ''The Folklore of Dowsing''. ''

Folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, rangin ...

'' 37 (2): 113-133. * — . Rose, H. J. (1926). ''Folklore and Psychical Research'' ''

'' 37 (4): 396-398. * — . (1928). ''The Belief in Rebirth of the Druses and Other Syrian Sects''. ''

'' 39 (2): 133-148. * — . (1928)
''Report of a Pseudo-Sitting for Physical Phenomena with Karl Kraus''
Journal of Society for Psychical Research 24: 388-392. * — . (1929)
''Report of a Four Months' Tour of Psychical Investigation''
Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 38: 409-480. * — . (1930)
''Review: Modern Psychic Mysteries''
Journal of Society for Psychical Research 26: 10-14. * — . Jephson, Ina; Soal, Samuel. (1930). ''Report of a Series of Experiments in Clairvoyance''. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 39: 375-414. * — . (1930). ''The Belief in Rebirth Among the Natives of Africa (Including Madagascar)''. ''

'' 41 (1): 43-94. * — . (1932)
''An Experiment in Long-Distance Telepathy''
Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 27: 235-236. * — . (1932)
''The Psychology of Testimony in Relation to Paraphysical Phenomena: Report of an Experiment''
Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 40: 363-387. * — . (1932)
''The Mediumship of Rudi Schneider''
Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 40: 428-436. * — . (1933)
''Note on an Attempt to Locate in Space the Alleged Direct Voice Observed in Sittings with Mrs. Leonard''
Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 28: 84-85. * — . (1933)
''Report of an Inquiry into Precognitive Dreams''
Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 41: 186-204. * — . (1933)
''"An Experiment in "Clairvoyance" with M. Stefan Ossowiecki''
Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 41: 345-351. * — ; Gatty, Oliver. (1934)
''Report of an Investigation Into the Mediumship of Rudi Schneider''
Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 42: 251-285. * — ; Gatty, Oliver. (1934)
''Further Tests of the Medium Rudi Schneider''
''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...

'' 134: 965-966. * — . (1935)
''Reflections on the Mediumship of Rudi Schneider''
Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 29: 32-33. * — . (1935)
''The Mediumship of Carlos Mirabelli''
Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 29: 141-153.

References

External links

* Giles Barber
Theodore Besterman
November 2010
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Resignation
Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 26: 45-52. (Including Besterman's reply).
Voltaire Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Besterman, Theodore 1904 births 1976 deaths Bibliographers Parapsychologists Polish translators 20th-century British translators British biographers Congress Poland emigrants to the United Kingdom British Army personnel of World War II Royal Artillery officers