Manuscripts

C. Boxall The Library of Sir Richard Burton

Description: An annotated list of Burton's library, bound, with leather covers.
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Date: 1947
Call number: mssRBL
Creator: Burton, Richard Francis (1821-1890)(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: Acquired from The Christensen Fund, Nov. 1997. At the time of Isabel Burton's death in 1896, the main part of Richard Burton's surviving manuscripts and library were deposited at the Central Library, Kensington; in 1955, the Royal Borough of Kensington gave the library to the Royal Anthropological Institute for safe-keeping. In 1986, The Christensen Fund acquired the entire library from the R.A.I., and deposited it at the Huntington Library, until November 1997, when The Christensen Fund formally gave the manuscripts and 2,500-volume library to the Huntington Library.

Richard Francis Burton Library Manuscripts Collection

Manuscripts

This collection consists mainly of manuscripts, correspondence, drawings, printed material, and catalogues related to Burton's work and interest with swords, fencing, and his interest in Middle Eastern poetry and history; the collection contains research material and early drafts of Burton's The Book of the Sword, Vols. I-III, and To the Gold Coast. The correspondence includes letters from, among others, Verney Lovett Cameron, Richard S. Charnock, Chatto and Windus, Dominic E. Colnaghi, Alexander Fergusson, Violet Greville, John Latham, Augustus H. L. Pitt-Rivers, Bernard Quaritch, William Tinsley, H. Schütz Wilson, Henry Yule and Hermann Zotenberg. The papers consist of the following series: 1. Manuscripts - Volumes (Boxes 1-5) are arranged alphabetically by author and title. The volumes include one manuscript by Burton, and manuscripts by other authors, which reflect Burton's interest in Iceland and Middle Eastern history and poetry, including the Arabian Nights. This series also includes printed material, clippings, catalogues, pamphlets, illustrations used and annotated by Burton; there is also one folder of Ephemera. 2. Manuscripts - Folders (Boxes 6-10) are arranged alphabetically by author and title. This series mainly consists of Burton's work on the sword and fencing, including The Book of the Sword, Infantry Sword Exercise, "Selected System of Fencing" and "The Sentiment of the Sword…;" it also includes a page from The Highlands of Brazil and an early draft of To the Gold Coast…: A Personal Narrative. There are a few manuscripts by other authors, mainly dealing with swords and fencing. 3. Manuscripts - Drawings (Box 11) are arranged by subject. This series is mainly drawings and illustrations for The Book of the Sword, Vols. I-III, and one illustration for North Borneo. 4. Correspondence and catalogues (Boxes 12-14) are arranged alphabetically by author. The majority of the letters are written to Richard Burton and deal with his ongoing work and interest in swords and fencing; there are a few letters to Isabel Burton. This series includes letters by, among others, Verney Lovett Cameron, Richard S. Charnock, Chatto and Windus, Dominic E. Colnaghi, Alexander Fergusson, Violet Greville, John Latham, Augustus H. L. Pitt-Rivers, Bernard Quaritch, William Tinsley, H. Shütz Wilson, Henry Yule and Hermann Zotenberg. Also includes one box of catalogues related to Burton's library.

mssRBL

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Catalogue of Books from the Library of the late Sir Richard Burton, K.C.M.G., Presented to the Kensington Public Libraries

Manuscripts

Autograph with corrections; spine damaged and covers are loose.

mssRBL

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Catalogues related to Burton's library

Manuscripts

mssRBL

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Burton, Richard Francis, Sir, 1821-1890. [Dialogues in Farsi and Urdu], A.MS.S. (215 p.), (1856)

Manuscripts

Note: bound volume, some pages are blank. Handle carefully -- binding and some pages have come loose. Title on spine: Persian MS. annotated by Burton; in Farsi and Urdu with Burton's (and other's) annotations in Arabic and English.

RFB 84

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Sir Richard Francis Burton Papers

Manuscripts

This collection contains personal, official, business, and social correspondence and manuscripts of British explorer and writer Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890) and his wife, Lady Isabel Burton (1831-1896), chiefly covering the period of Burton's consulship in Trieste and Lady Burton's life after her husband's death. The collection contains very little early material for Richard and Isabel Burton, but it does include almost all of Burton's work on Camoens, in various drafts over a number of years. There is also a large group of letters between Isabel Burton and Leonard C. Smithers, and other publishers, editors, and lawyers which detail the, sometimes torturous, publication process in late nineteenth-century England. The collection was assembled by Edwards H. Metcalf over more than thirty years. The papers consist of the following series: 1. Manuscripts (Boxes 1-21). The manuscripts include a selection of Burton's literary works, mainly from his later writing career. Included in this series are: travel journals, essays, a few poems, and his translation of Ariosto…Roland the Rageful, his Camoens notes and translations, and his translation of Ladislaus Magyar. This series also includes manuscripts by other authors, most notably by Isabel Burton, Edward Rehatsek, Leonard C. Smithers, and Henry Yule. 2. Correspondence (Boxes 22-46). This series includes Burton's personal letters, business letters related to gold mining enterprises, and letters related to his writing; also included are a small number of Isabel Burton's personal letters and a large number of letters with various publishers, booksellers, and lawyers concerning the publication of Burton's works. This series also includes letters from notable people in the fields of exploration and publishing: Verney Lovett Cameron, Charles George Gordon, William Forsell Kirby, and Leonard C. Smithers. 3. Other Scholars Material (Boxes 47-50). This series includes mostly research material and correspondence dealing with Apuleius‟ "Golden Ass," the publication of erotic literature, and various translation projects by Alfred Richard Allinson, Charles A. Groves, John Payne, Theodore Watts-Dunton, and Thomas Wright. 4. Extra Oversize Material (Box 51). Included in this series is a portrait proof engraving of Richard Burton by Frederic Leighton; also, 21 hand-drawn maps of Midian, many with Arabic captions and autograph notes by Burton. 5. Other Scholars Material (Boxes 52-55). This series includes research and manuscript material for Fawn Brodie, including her Burton biography, The Devil Drives. 6. Ephemera (Boxes 56-59). Box 56 contains invoices, printed material, photographs, and transcriptions (1873-1896); box 57 contains book reviews, Mary S. Lovell material, photocopies, and printed material (1964-2000); box 58 contains photocopies; and box 59 contains prints and ephemera.

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[Burton, Richard Francis, Sir, 1821-1890 (trans.)]. [Os Lusiadas (The Lusiads)]: Cantos V, VI, VII, VIII: [early draft], A.MS. (295 p.), ([1880-1881])

Manuscripts

Note: bound notebook, with loose pages and several pages of newspaper clippings laid into front. Pencilled page numbers supplied by an earlier cataloger. Followed by: autograph, signed notes for Burton's "Commentary" (?), (25 p.).

RFB 29

C. Boxall The Library of Sir Richard Burton

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Richard Francis Burton Library Manuscripts Collection

Catalogue of Books from the Library of the late Sir Richard Burton, K.C.M.G., Presented to the Kensington Public Libraries

Catalogues related to Burton's library

Burton, Richard Francis, Sir, 1821-1890. [Dialogues in Farsi and Urdu], A.MS.S. (215 p.), (1856)

Sir Richard Francis Burton Papers

[Burton, Richard Francis, Sir, 1821-1890 (trans.)]. [Os Lusiadas (The Lusiads)]: Cantos V, VI, VII, VIII: [early draft], A.MS. (295 p.), ([1880-1881])