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London Library
The London Library is an Subscription library, independent lending library in London, established in 1841. Membership is open to all, on payment of an annual subscription, with life and corporate memberships also available. As of December 2023 the Library had around 7,500 members. The Library was founded on the initiative of Thomas Carlyle, who was dissatisfied with some of the policies at the British Library, British Museum Library. It is located at 14 St James's Square, in the St James's area of the City of Westminster, which has been its home since 1845.Libraries ." ''City of Westminster''. Retrieved on 21 January 2009. T. S. Eliot, a long-serving President of the Library, argued in July 1952 in an address to members that, "whatever social changes come about, the di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit library, it receives copies of all books produced in the United Kingdom and Ireland, as well as a significant proportion of overseas titles distributed in the United Kingdom. The library operates as a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The British Library is a major research library, with items in many languages and in many formats, both print and digital: books, manuscripts, journals, newspapers, magazines, sound and music recordings, videos, play-scripts, patents, databases, maps, stamps, prints, drawings. The Library's collections include around 14 million books, along with substantial holdings of manuscripts and items dating as far back as 2000 BC. The library maintains a programme for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray ( ; 18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was an English novelist and illustrator. He is known for his Satire, satirical works, particularly his 1847–1848 novel ''Vanity Fair (novel), Vanity Fair'', a panoramic portrait of British society, and the 1844 novel ''The Luck of Barry Lyndon'', which was Barry Lyndon, adapted for a 1975 film by Stanley Kubrick. Thackeray was born in Calcutta, British India, and was sent to England after his father's death in 1815. He studied at various schools and briefly attended Trinity College, Cambridge, before leaving to travel Europe. Thackeray squandered much of his inheritance on gambling and unsuccessful newspapers. He turned to journalism to support his family, primarily working for ''Fraser's Magazine'', ''The Times'', and ''Punch (magazine), Punch''. His wife Isabella suffered from mental illness. Thackeray gained fame with his novel ''Vanity Fair'' and produced several other notable works. He unsuccessfully ran f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Theodore Hagberg Wright
Sir Charles Theodore Hagberg Wright, LL.D. (17 November 1862 – 7 March 1940) was the Secretary and Librarian of the London Library from 1893 until his death. He managed expansion of the library and compiled a comprehensive catalogue of its collection. ''The Times'' called him "the guiding genius" of the library, the driving force behind the four decades of its growth.Sir Charles Hagberg Wright (obituary)''. The Times, 7 March 1940. The Library itself hails Wright as "the real architect of the London Library as it is today".A brief history of the library''. London Library. Retrieved 2010-04-22. Wright was a highly public person and frequently engaged in political debates. His scholarly interests ranged from the history of the colonization of Africa to translation of Leo Tolstoy. He had a reputation of a liberal russophile and was involved in Russian radical politics and wartime humanitarian aid to Russian soldiers and academics. Biography Family roots and early years Charl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Langhorne Astor
The Hon. Michael Langhorne Astor (10 April 1916 – 28 February 1980) was a British Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party politician. Early life Michael Astor was born on 10 April 1916. He was the fourth child of Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor, and Nancy Astor, Nancy Witcher Langhorne, both Members of Parliament. He attended prep school at St. Michael's, Uckfield, where he was a contemporary of the future writer and painter Denton Welch, who later included him in a short story. He was educated at Eton College and gained the rank of Captain (British Army and Royal Marines), captain, serving in the Royal Artillery (Territorial Army (United Kingdom), Territorial Army). He served as an officer during WW2 in "Phantom" GHQ Liaison Regiment. Career He was elected as Conservative Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament for Surrey East in the 1945 United Kingdom general election, 1945 general election. He kept his seat in the 1950 United Kingdom general elec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rupert Hart-Davis
Sir Rupert Charles Hart-Davis (28 August 1907 – 8 December 1999) was an English publisher and editor. He founded the publishing company Rupert Hart-Davis Ltd. As a biographer, he is remembered for his ''Hugh Walpole'' (1952), as an editor, for his ''Collected Letters of Oscar Wilde'' (1962), and, as both editor and part-author, for the '' Lyttelton/Hart-Davis Letters''. Working at a publishing firm before the Second World War, Hart-Davis began to forge literary relationships that would be important later in his career. Founding his publishing company in 1946, Hart-Davis was praised for the quality of the firm's publications and production; but he refused to cater to public tastes, and the firm eventually lost money. After relinquishing control of the firm, Hart-Davis concentrated on writing and editing, producing collections of letters and other works which brought him the sobriquet "the king of editors". Biography Early years Hart-Davis was born in Kensington, London. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harold Nicolson
Sir Harold George Nicolson (21 November 1886 – 1 May 1968) was a British politician, writer, broadcaster and gardener. His wife was Vita Sackville-West. Early life and education Nicolson was born in Tehran, Persia, the youngest son of diplomat Arthur Nicolson, 1st Baron Carnock. He spent his boyhood in various places throughout Europe and the Near East and followed his father's frequent postings, including in St. Petersburg, Russia, St. Petersburg, Constantinople, Madrid, Sofia, Bulgaria, Sofia, and Tangier. He was educated at The Grange School in Folkestone, Kent, followed by Wellington College (Berkshire), Wellington College. He attended Balliol College, Oxford, graduating in 1909 with a British undergraduate degree classification, third class degree. Nicolson entered the Foreign Office that same year, after passing second in the competitive exams for the Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service, Diplomatic Service and Civil Service (United Kingdom), Civil Service. Diplomatic car ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kenneth Clark
Kenneth Mackenzie Clark, Baron Clark (13 July 1903 – 21 May 1983) was a British art historian, museum director and broadcaster. His expertise covered a wide range of artists and periods, but he is particularly associated with Italian Renaissance art, most of all that of Leonardo da Vinci. After running two art galleries in the 1930s and 1940s, he came to wider public notice on television, presenting a succession of programmes on the arts from the 1950s to the 1970s, the largest and best known being the ''Civilisation (TV series), Civilisation'' series in 1969. The son of rich parents, Clark was introduced to the arts at an early age. Among his early influences were the writings of John Ruskin, which instilled in him the belief that everyone should have access to great art. After coming under the influence of the art experts Bernard Berenson and Roger Fry, Clark was appointed director of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford aged twenty-seven, and three years later he was put in charg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are widely read today. Born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school at age 12 to work in a boot-blacking factory when his father John Dickens, John was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. After three years, he returned to school before beginning his literary career as a journalist. Dickens edited a weekly journal for 20 years; wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and nonfiction articles; lectured and performed Penny reading, readings extensively; was a tireless letter writer; and campaigned vigor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale (; 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English Reform movement, social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War, in which she organised care for wounded soldiers at Constantinople. She significantly reduced death rates by improving hygiene and living standards. Nightingale gave nursing a favourable reputation and became an icon of Victorian culture, especially in the persona of "The Lady with the Lamp" making rounds of wounded soldiers at night. Recent commentators have asserted that Nightingale's Crimean War achievements were exaggerated by the media at the time, but critics agree on the importance of her later work in professionalising nursing roles for women. In 1860, she laid the foundation of professional nursing with the establishment of Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, her nursing school at St Thomas' Hospi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton
Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton, FRS (19 June 1809 – 11 August 1885) was an English poet, patron of literature and a politician who strongly supported social justice. Background and education Milnes was born in London, the son of Robert Pemberton Milnes, of Fryston Hall, Castleford, West Yorkshire, and the Honourable Henrietta, daughter of Robert Monckton-Arundell, 4th Viscount Galway. His grandmother was Rachel Slater Milnes (née Busk, 1760–1835), niece of Sir Wadsworth Busk. Milnes was educated privately, and entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1827. There he was drawn into a literary set, and became a member of the famous Apostles Club, which then included Alfred Lord Tennyson, Arthur Hallam, Richard Chenevix Trench, Joseph Williams Blakesley, and others. After graduating with an M.A. in 1831, Milnes travelled abroad, spending some time at the University of Bonn. He went to Italy and Greece, and published in 1834 a volume of ''Memorials of a T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boston Public Library
The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also Massachusetts' Library for the Commonwealth (formerly ''library of last recourse''), meaning all adult residents of the state are entitled to borrowing and research privileges, and the library receives state funding. The Boston Public Library contains approximately 24 million items, making it the third-largest public library in the United States behind the federal Library of Congress and New York Public Library, which is also privately endowed. The Central Library's McKim building in Copley Square was designated as a Boston Landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission in 2000. Overview Boston Public Library has a collection of more than 23.7 million items, which makes it one of the largest municipal public library systems in the United States. The vast majority of the collection—over 22.7 million volumes—is held in the Central Branch rese ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joshua Bates (financier)
Joshua Bates (October 10, 1788 – September 24, 1864) was an American international financier who divided his life between the United States and the United Kingdom. Early life Bates was born in Commercial St., Weymouth, Massachusetts on October 10, 1788. He was the son of Col. Joshua Bates (1755–1804), who fought in the American Revolutionary War, and Tirzah (née Pratt) Bates (1764–1841). After his father's death in 1804, his mother remarried to Ebenezer Hunt (1760–1832) in 1808. His sister, Nancy Bates, was married to Capt. Warren Weston, the mother of abolitionist Maria Weston Chapman (who Bates paid for her education in London). His paternal grandparents were Abraham Bates and Sarah (née Tower) Bates. Career Early in his career, he worked for William Gray, owner of Gray's Wharf in Charlestown. A merchant and a banker, in 1828 Bates became associated with the great house of Baring Brothers & Co. of London, of which he eventually became the senior partner. He ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
