A Baronet and a Priest

Two small but choice collections have recently been donated, both important additions to the library's holdings relating to literature and Roman Catholicism.

Shane Leslie

Lady Leslie of Hove, England, generously presented additional papers of her late husband, Sir Shane Leslie (1885-1971), the noted man of letters. The Leslie archives at Georgetown ably document his long and distinguished career as poet, lecturer, biographer, critic and novelist. This latest acquisition consists largely of correspondence, including material by the writer Anita Leslie as well as by Seymour Leslie, Mia Woodruff, Shirley Eshelby, and an extensive group of letters by Lady Leslie herself.

Of particular interest is a copy of Leslie's early book of poetry, Verses in Peace and War, published by Burns and Oates in 1916. Laid into the volume is an autograph letter, dated June 28, 1916, by one of the publishers, the noted typographer Francis Meynell, founder of the Nonesuch Press. He writes in part:

Father (Wilfrid Meynell) wants to have a photograph of yourself in the front of the book of poems . . . I shall add nothing in the shape of a letter, for every word that I should wish to write would be censored out. But in this land of freedom, my house has been spied upon and searched, and I await, in company with two score thousand others, arrest, headbeating, irons, solitary confinement, long terms of imprisonment, and quite possibly the death sentence, for refusing to obey military orders.

During World War I Meynell was a conscientious objector.

Bruno Scott James

The surviving papers of that remarkable English Catholic priest, Mgr. Bruno Scott James (1906-1984), were donated by his nephew, Richard Wells of Little Witley, England. James as a young man decided not to attend Oxford and instead joined a monastery of Anglican Benedictines at Pershore. Later, he was received into the Catholic Church and upon ordination was assigned to restore the medieval shrine of the Slipper Chapel at Walsingham in Norfolk. His close friend, Bishop William Gordon Wheeler, has described him in this period:

This rather eccentric priest, enveloped in a black cloak, his head shorn, and with a Siamese cat perched on his shoulder, squatting on the steps of the Slipper Chapel as he poured out pearls of patristic wisdom, was an inspiration to many. He had a great gift of prayer himself and was able to communicate this to others.

Greatly moved by Morris West's depiction of the slums of Naples in Children of the Sun, Father Bruno moved to Italy. Besides ministering to the poor there, he founded in Naples the John Henry Newman College, a residence hall for students. Perhaps his most enduring monument is his published work, including The Letters of St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1953), The Life of St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1955), Seeking God (1960), and a fascinating autobiography, Asking for Trouble (1961).