[Geoffrey Langdale Bickersteth, Italianist and Professor of English at Aberdeen University.] Three Autograph Letters Signed to his old headmaster at Charterhouse 'Dr. Rendall’, with reference to Dante, Marlborough College, Josef Schick, E. A. Wilson.

Three excellent letters, written to his old headmaster at Charterhouse. Bickersteth’s papers are at Aberdeen, and with those of his family at the Bodleian. See the Oxford DNB entry for his brother Julian Bickersteth (1885-1962). Three long letters, every page fully filled with text neatly written in a close hand. The three items in fair condition, lightly aged and worn. ONE (11 July 1913): 4pp, 12mo, with additional cross writing on the first three. Bifolium. Begins by thanking him for his book, clearly Rendall’s ‘A Hero of the Antarctic’, about the ornithologist and explorer E. A. Wilson (1872-1912). ‘I read it last night and really almost felt as if I had known the man. I wish I had known him, for his life must have been an inspiration to many. Anyone, who has been a schoolmaster even for such a short time as I have, is able to realise how extraordinary the effect of such a life must have been iONE: 11 July 1913; on letterhead of The College, Marlborough. TWO: 27 January 1914; Amalienstrasse 44A/II, Munich. THREE: 7 February 1933; on letterhead of 4 St John’s Terrace, Glasgow, W2.n a public school. There is nobody on the staff here who even remotely resembles him and to read about him makes one feel a very miserable creature indeed in comparision.’ He proceeds to give an outline of his plans, having resigned his post at Marlborough the previous term, ‘not of course without careful thought’. He gives his reasons, noting that he has ‘no ambitions to be a Headmaster and housemastering in a school run on the hostel system would not interest me much’. He has no desire to marry, ‘but supposing I did, I should not be able to for another 15 or 20 years’. ‘I contemplate with absolute horror the prospect of becoming one day what most of the more senior members of the staff here are - men whose interests are atrophied and whose whole outlook on life is bounded by the 4 walls of Marlborough College. You see, we are very much cut off from the world here.’ ‘My chief interest is literature. I am tolerably well acquainted now (I mean for my age) with the literatures of six languages. Since I left Oxford I have used all my time in reading and travelling. A German or French university held out to me the best prospects. I prefer the German language so chose Germany. I intend to go to a German university (or rather two, Munich and Heidelberg) and there read for a Ph.D. [...] The qualifications (supposing I am successful) would be. Classical schol. of Charterhouse, 2nd in Greats, Ph.D. Heidelberg, (in Eng: Germ & French) 5 years teaching experience in a public school, and one book on an Italian poet to my credit. (Age 30.)’ His book on Carducci is being published by Longmans, ‘at no expense to myself’, and he has returned from an ‘intensely interesting’ visit to Russia and Finland. TWO (27 January 1914): 4pp, 8vo. Discussing a letter by Rendall on his Carducci, and criticisms of his own prosody, and the art of translation. He ends with a description of the ‘interesting time’ he is having in Germany: ‘German educational ideals & methods are very different to ours. Both have their good and bad points. I am working here under one of the greatest of living philologists and linguists. Professor Schick [Josef Schick (1859-1944)] by name, a marvel of erudition, if ever there was one, and yet far from being a Dryasdust. He is a perfect master of about a dozen dead languages and over 20 modern ones and is an absolutely brilliant teacher. All European languages as well as Japanese, Chinese, Turkish, Uralic, Sanskrit Coptic etc. are contained in his repertoire, and yet his most important publications have dealt with various problems of pure mathematics. He daily holds over 200 men and women literally entranced over the purely philological consideration of Anglo-Saxon roots - the dryest of all dry subjects in other hands.’ He ends with news of his plan for his dissertation and other matters. THREE (7 February 1933): 4pp, 12mo. Begins by thanking Rendall for his help in placing his brother Julian in the position [of headmaster of Felsted School], with praise of his brother’s attitude and abilities. Changing the subject he writes: ‘I can’t help also being particularly pleased by your praise of my translation [of Dante’s ‘Paradiso’]. From my old headmaster, who was the first to give me a dear notion of the art of poetry and has taken such interest in my work ever sincec I left Charterhouse (now 30 years ago) your commendation is as delighful as was ever a ‘bene’ written at the top of a Greek or Latin prose those many years ago.’ He considers the Paradiso ‘the most astoundingly successful use of symbol for expressing the unexpressible, & that on a gigantic scale, anywhere extant, so far as I know, not excluding the Hebrew Prophets, works like the Book of Revelation, or some of the Myths of Plato’. The final paragraph concerns the ‘schoolmen’ (‘Aquinas, merely as a thinker, leaves me agasp at his genius’).