A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of Lambeth Palace ISBN: 9780511919954 Platform/Publisher: Cambridge Core / Cambridge University Press Digital rights:Users: Unlimited; Printing: Unlimited; Download: Unlimited
M. R. James (1862-1936) is probably best remembered as a writer of chilling ghost stories, but he was an outstanding scholar of medieval literature and palaeography, who served as Provost of King's College, Cambridge, and Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, and later became Provost of Eton College. His detailed descriptive catalogues of manuscripts owned by colleges, cathedrals and museums are still of value to scholars today. James worked with the Lambeth Librarian Claude Jenkins on this catalogue, first published in five parts between 1930 and 1932, of the important manuscript collection begun by Archbishop Bancroft in the early seventeenth century. Building on James' handlist of medieval manuscripts in the library, published in 1900 and also reissued in this series, it gives full descriptions of the manuscripts including their contents, decoration, provenance and history. Volume 2 of this reissue contains Parts 4-5, covering manuscripts 358-576 and 36 others.
M. R. James was born in Goodnestone, Kent, England on August 1, 1862. He was an English mediaeval scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905-1918) and of Eton College (1918-1936). He is best remembered for his ghost stories which are widely regarded as among the finest in English literature.
He began writing his ghost stories as an entertainment for his friends; he would read these stories each year at Christmas to his colleagues at King's College. The earliest of these tales include Canon Alberic's Scrap-book and Lost Hearts, both of which were later collected in his first anthology of supernatural fiction, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904). Perhaps his single greatest story is the profoundly disturbing Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad (1904). He died on June 12, 1936.
