Editing London Library (section)

==History==
[[File:Thomas Carlyle by Robert Scott Tait 31 July 1854.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Thomas Carlyle]] by Robert Scott Tait, 31 July 1854]]
The chief instigator in the Library's foundation was [[Thomas Carlyle]].<ref>Grindea 1978, pp. 9–13</ref><ref>Wells 1991, pp. 24–31.</ref> He had become frustrated by the facilities available at the [[British Library|British Museum Library]], where he was often unable to find a seat (obliging him to perch on ladders), where he complained that the enforced close confinement with his fellow readers gave him a "museum headache", where the books were unavailable for loan, and where he found the library's collections of pamphlets and other material relating to the [[French Revolution]] and [[English Civil War]]s inadequately catalogued. In particular, he developed an antipathy for the Keeper of Printed Books, [[Anthony Panizzi]] (despite the fact that Panizzi had allowed him many privileges not granted to other readers), and criticised him, as the "respectable Sub-Librarian", in a footnote to an article published in the ''[[Westminster Review]]''.<ref>Wells 1991, pp. 26–31.</ref> Carlyle's eventual solution, with the support of a number of influential friends, was to call for the establishment of a private subscription library from which books could be borrowed.

[[File:Narrow London Library label.jpg|right|thumb|19th-century London Library book label]]
The [[George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon|Earl of Clarendon]] was the Library's first President, [[William Makepeace Thackeray]] its first auditor, and [[William Ewart Gladstone|William Gladstone]] and Sir [[Edward Bunbury]] sat on the first committee. The Belgian freedom fighter and former Louvain librarian [[Sylvain Van de Weyer]] was a vice-president from 1848 to 1874. (Van de Weyer's father-in-law [[Joshua Bates (financier)|Joshua Bates]] was a founder of the [[Boston Public Library]] in 1852.)

A vigorous and long-serving presence in later Victorian times was [[Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton|Richard Monckton-Milnes]], later Lord Houghton, a friend of [[Florence Nightingale]]. [[Charles Dickens]] was among the founder members. In more recent times, [[Kenneth Clark]] and [[T. S. Eliot]] have been among the Library's presidents, and Sir [[Harold Nicolson]], Sir [[Rupert Hart-Davis]] and the [[Michael Langhorne Astor|Hon Michael Astor]] have been Chairmen.

(Sir) [[Charles Theodore Hagberg Wright|Charles Hagberg Wright]], who served as Secretary and Librarian from 1893 to 1940, is remembered as "the real architect of the London Library as it is today".<ref>''[http://www.londonlibrary.co.uk/aboutus/history.htm A brief history of the library] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100221013847/http://www.londonlibrary.co.uk/aboutus/history.htm |date=21 February 2010 }}''. London Library. Retrieved 2010-04-22.</ref> He oversaw the rebuilding of its premises in the 1890s, the re-cataloguing and rearrangement of its collections under its own unique [[Library classification|classification system]], and the publication of its catalogue in 1903, with a second edition in 1913–14 and later supplements.

In 1957 the Library received an unanticipated demand from [[Westminster City Council]] for [[Business rates in England|business rates]] (despite being registered as a tax-free charity), and the [[Inland Revenue]] also became involved. At that time, most publishers donated free copies of their books to the library. A final appeal was turned down by the [[Court of Appeal]] in 1959, and a letter in ''[[The Times]]'' of 5 November from the President and Chairman ([[T. S. Eliot]] and [[Rupert Hart-Davis]]) appealed for funds.<ref>{{cite news |first1=T. S. |last1=Eliot |author1-link=T. S. Eliot |first2=Rupert |last2=Hart-Davis |author2-link=Rupert Hart-Davis |title=Letters to the editor – London Library |newspaper=The Times |date=5 November 1959 |issue=54610 |page=13 }}</ref> A subsequent letter from [[Winston Churchill]] commented that "The closing of this most worthy institution would be a tragedy".<ref>{{cite news |first1=Winston S. |last1=Churchill |author-link=Winston Churchill |title=Letters to the editor – London Library |newspaper=The Times |date=14 November 1959 |issue=54618 |page=7 }}</ref> Financial donations reached £17,000, and an auction of books, manuscripts and artworks on 22 June 1960 raised over £25,000 – enough to clear debts and legal expenses of £20,000. At the sale some [[T. E. Lawrence]] items donated by his brother fetched £3,800, Eliot's ''[[The Waste Land]]'' fetched £2,800, and [[Lytton Strachey]]'s ''Queen Victoria'' £1,800, though 170 inscribed books and pamphlets from [[John Masefield]] fetched only £200, which Hart-Davis thought "shamefully little". [[Elizabeth II|Queen Elizabeth II]] donated a book from [[Queen Victoria]]'s library, and the [[Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother|Queen Mother]] a [[Sheffield plate]] [[Wine accessory#Coolers|wine cooler]].<ref>Wells 1991, pp. 188–202.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Hart-Davis |first=Rupert |author-link=Rupert Hart-Davis |title=Halfway to Heaven: concluding memoirs of a literary life |year=1998 |publisher=Sutton |location=Stroud |isbn=0-7509-1837-3 |pages=48–56 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/halfwaytoheavenc0000hart }}</ref>

In the 1990s, the Library was one of a number of academic and specialist libraries targeted by serial book thief [[William Jacques]]. The identification of several rare books put up for auction as having been stolen from the Library led the police to investigate Jacques and to his eventual prosecution and conviction. Security measures at the Library have since been improved.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/may/26/classics.artsandhumanities |title=There was a bookish man |last=Rayner |first=Jay |work=The Observer |date=26 May 2002 |access-date=9 July 2015}}</ref>

[[File:ReynoldsStone'sLondonLibraryLogo.jpg|thumb|20th-century London Library book label designed by [[Reynolds Stone]]]]