Editing Mass-Observation (section)

==Origins==
[[File:Mass-Observation book cover 1937.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Cover of a book by Mass-Observation, showing [[George VI of the United Kingdom|King George VI]], radio news reporter [[Richard Dimbleby]] and flag-waving crowds]]
The creators of the Mass-Observation project were three former students from [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge]]: [[anthropologist]] [[Tom Harrisson]] (who left Cambridge before graduating),<ref>{{Cite book|title=Worktown : the astonishing story of the birth of Mass-Observation|last=Hall|first=David|year=2015|isbn=9780297871682|location=London|pages=39|oclc=918792140}}</ref> poet [[Charles Madge]] and filmmaker [[Humphrey Jennings]]. Collaborators included literary critic [[William Empson]], photographers [[Humphrey Spender]] and Michael Wickham,<ref>Mass Observation on show https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-23578168</ref> [[collagist]] [[Julian Trevelyan]], novelists [[Inez Pearn]] and [[Gerald Basil Edwards|G.B. Edwards]],<ref>[[Edward Chaney]], ''Genius Friend: G.B. Edwards and The Book of Ebenezer Le Page'', ([http://www.blueormer.co.uk/ Blue Ormer Publishing], 2015)</ref> spiritualist medium [[Rosemary Brown (spiritualist)|Rosemary Brown]],<ref name="Rosemary Brown">[[Rosemary Brown (spiritualist)]], ''Look Beyond Today'' (1986, Bantam Press), p. 112</ref> journalist [[Anne Symonds]], and painters [[William Coldstream]] and [[Graham Bell (artist)|Graham Bell]].  Run on a shoestring budget with money from their own pockets and the occasional philanthropic contribution or book advance, the project relied primarily on its network of volunteer correspondents.

Harrisson had set up his base in a working-class street in the northern English industrial town of [[Bolton]] (known in Mass-Observation publications as "Worktown"), in order to "systematically... record human activity in this industrial town" (Madge & Harrisson, 1938:7) using a variety of observational methods. Meanwhile, Madge, from his London home, had started to form a group of fellow-poets, artists and film-makers under the name "Mass-Observation".  The two teams began their collaboration in early 1937.

An important early focus was [[Edward VIII of the United Kingdom|King Edward VIII]]'s abdication in 1936 to marry divorcée [[Wallis Simpson]], and the succession of [[George VI]].  Dissatisfied with the pronouncements of the newspapers as to the public mood, the project's founders initiated a nationwide effort to document the feelings of the populace about important current events by collecting [[anecdote]]s, overheard comments, and "man-in-the-street" [[interview]]s on and around the [[coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth]] on 12 May 1937.

Their first published report, ''May the Twelfth: Mass-Observation Day-Surveys 1937 by over two hundred observers'' was published in book form. The result tended to subvert the Government's efforts at image-making. The principal editors were Humphrey Jennings and Charles Madge, with the help of T. O. Beachcroft, Julian Blackburn, [[William Empson]], Stuart Legg and [[Kathleen Raine]]. The 1987 reprint contains an [[afterword]] by [[David Francis Pocock|David Pocock]], director of the Tom Harrisson Mass-Observation archive.

In August 1939, Mass-Observation invited members of the public to record and send them a day-to-day account of their lives in the form of a diary. No special instructions were given to these diarists so they vary greatly in their style, content and length.<ref>''Mass Observation diaries. An introduction'' p.1</ref> 480 people responded to this invitation and their diaries are now held in the organisation's archive.<ref>''Nella Last's Peace'' p.303</ref>