16,000 AUTHORS
By JOHN HAYWARD
ONLY a Saintsbury could do full justice to the immense compilation of names and dates and titles which the Cambridge University Press, after many years gestation, has at last brought safely into a precarious world. The Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature*, or the C.B.E.L. as it will always be familiarly called, is, indeed, so nearly omniscient that even a Saintsbury might bend obsequiously beneath the weight of its four massive tomes. To describe it, let alone criticise it at all adequately, would require far more authority and space than I can command. My qualifications for describ- ing it, even in the most general terms, are analogous to those of a rivetter's mate, dragged to the microphone to give his per- sonal impressions of, say, the ' Queen Elizabeth.' Somewhere in the vast structure there is an obscure corner in which I did a small, routine job, unaware of the great work in progress around me. Now that it is complete I find myself, like the rivetter's mate, if not exactly spellbound, at least sufficiently lost in wonder at the toil and co-operation involved to be stuck for words in which to describe it.
It is customary to cite statistics on such occasions, and a few of the more impressive ones will give a rough but impressive idea of the scale of the work. The General Editor, Mr. F. W. Bateson, has employed more than 200 coadjutors, most of them specialists in their subjects, to supply expert bibliographical material about everything that can be said to possess literary interest " written before 1900 by authors living in the British Empire." The works of 16,000 authors are covered by this comprehensive survey, which occupies some 3,300 closely printed pages in double columns, and a quarter of a century, it is claimed, has gone by in the making of it. Twenty-five years would hardly seem to be too long for such a task; but I think I am correct in saying that it was not until about twelve years ago, when Mr. Bateson assumed full editorial responsi- bility, that the C.B.E.L. was in active preparation.
* Edited by F. W. Bateson, 4 volumes. (Cambridge University Press. £7 7s. the set.)
Before then, progress on the work was slow and indecisive. A vigorous guiding spirit was wanting to direct and nag at the contributors, and, more needful still, perhaps, a sharp blue pencil to edit and collate their copy. Like Malherbe, enfin Bateson vint, to bring consistency, accuracy and lucidity out of what might otherwise have been chaos. The debt which the C.B.E.L., and all who henceforth use it, owe to its Editor's enthusiasm and pertinacity is inestimable. Originally, the scope and purpose of the C.B.E.L. was merely to revise, bring up to date and print in a single convenient volume the indi- vidual bibliographies in the Cambridge History of English Literature, the usefulness of which had long been recognised by students and research workers. The principle in those early days was simply to provide a contributor with a proof copy of an individual bibliography and invite him to scribble in the margin whatever corrections and additions he considered necessary and desirable. How Mr. Bateson, when he was appointed to his responsible, if hardly enviable office, man- aged to introduce some system and logic into these various revisions, as they drifted sporadically through his letter-box, is a secret which he alone could explain.
There was a time when it seemed that of the making of this particular book there would be no end. For, as it progressed, its scope was gradually extended to cover wider and wider stretches of the whole enormous field of English literature. In its final form, the C.B.E.L. ranges far beyond the ordinary landmarks, taking in extensive tracts of literary material that can be described only very broadly as " literature." Pamphlets, text-books, guides, ephemerae as well as books, on almost every subject under the sun, provided they come within the terms of reference—and the definition " literary interest " is applied very broadly—have been gathered in; further, in the sections devoted to Criticism and Biography under each author, even newspaper and periodical articles are included, many of them dated as recently as last year. Thus, not only Eng. Lit., as she is taught in schools, but Science, Theology, Sport, Juven- ilia, Economics, Sociology and many other subjects are sur- veyed chronologically with the same efficiency and complete- ness as Shakespeare or Dickens, and with the same attention to bibliographical precision. There are, to give only a few examples, entries for " Circulating Libraries," " Dissenting Academies," " Spas and Watering Places," " Mammonism," " Fairy Tales," " Outdoor Ball-games," " Humorous Papers," " The Oxford Movement," " Taxation and Finance " and " Copyright." In particular, I think that special attention and praise should be given to Mr. Graham Pollard's remarkable contributions ii each volume on newspapers,. periodicals and printing. These are outstanding bibliographies in a work which, if inevitably uneven in places, is distinguished for the wealth of expert knowledge, research and scholarly exactness it dis- closes in almost every one of its seven thousand columns.
The chapters that catalogue the forgotten effusions in prose and verse of the most obscure of the 16,000 occupants of this rather overcrowded nest of singing and other less melodious birds, have a peculiar and horrible fascination. These are they over whom the iniquity of oblivion has scattered her poppy with an all too sure and discriminating hand Troy and the Maypole in the Strand seem almost familiar objects compared with the works of Pack, Werge, Popple, Bigg, Surr, Lok, Wapull, Peaps, Buc and Wiffen. They are, indeed, more dusty and unhonoured bones and relics in the Temple of Fame than memorials of living literature, and a very macabre sight they are. I commend to the curious a perusal of the chapters devoted to minor versifiers and novelists.
The C.B.E.L. was designed and is destined to be a standard work of reference for all students of English literature. The unpropitious hour of its birth, at a time when libraries are partially inaccessible, communications broken and opportuni- ties for study and research limited, will in no way prejudice the valuable service it is waiting to give to all who turn to it for guidance and information. It is a most imposing short- hand history of English life and letters. It may not be indis- pensable to. every household, but every library that contains it will be richer and more useful for its presence.
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