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Senate House Library

Henry Arthur Jones Collection

The Collection

Subject: English literature 

74 works by and about the playwright  (1851-1929; see ODNB)—a leading dramatist of his time, although he faded into obscurity soon afterwards. He wrote a mixture of great successes and equally spectacular flops, and used his plays as a vehicle for social criticism. 

The collection is based on 50 items purchased from the àËÅöÊÓƵ bookseller and writer Ifan Kyrle Fletcher in 1950, with some later additions. Material was published between 1891 and 1930. Most of the texts are plays, some in more than one edition. There are also some lectures about drama and current affairs. The most unusual item is an ephemeral piece, The Henry Arthur Jones Calendar: A Quotation from the Works of Henry Arthur Jones for Every Day in the Year (1917). Some of the later additions were inscribed and presented by Jones to his executor, the art critic  (‘Moti’), and some contain autograph letters from Jones. The plays include items privately printed by the Chiswick Press.

Access 

For an overview of the library, do on [Jones]. The collection is held off-site and material requires 48 hours (excluding weekends) to be fetched. 

Related materials 

Further reading 

  • Griffin, Penny, Arthur Wing Pinero and Henry Arthur Jones (Basingstoke: Macmillan Education, 1991) 
  • Jones, Doris Arthur, The Life and Letters of Henry Arthur Jones (àËÅöÊÓƵ: Gollancz, 1930)