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GARNETT, RICHARD (1835–1906)
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See also:GARNETT, See also:RICHARD (1835–1906) , See also:English librarian and author, son of the learned philologist Rev. Richard Garnett (1789-1850), See also:priest-See also:vicar of See also:Lichfield See also:cathedral and afterwards keeper of printed books at the See also:British Museum, who came of a See also:Yorkshire See also:family, was See also:born at Lichfield on the 27th of See also:February 1835. His See also:father was really the See also:pioneer of See also:modern philological See also:research in See also:England; his articles in the Quarterly See also:Review (1835, 1836) on English lexicography and dialects, and on the See also:Celtic question, and his essays in the Transactions of the Philological Society (reprinted 1859), were invaluable to the later study of the English See also:language. The son, who thus owed much to his parentage, was educated at See also:home and at a private school, and in 1851, just after his father's See also:death, entered the British Museum as an assistant in the library. In 1875 he See also:rose to be See also:superintendent of the See also:reading-See also:room, and from 1890 to 1899, when he retired, he was keeper of the printed books. In 1883 he was given the degree of LL.D. at See also:Edinburgh, an See also:honour repeated by other See also:universities, and in 1895 he was made a C.B. His See also:long connexion with the British Museum library, and the value of his services there, made him a well-known figure in the See also:literary See also:world, and he published much See also:original See also:work in both See also:prose and See also:verse. His See also:chief publications in See also:book-See also:form were: in verse, Primula (1858), lo in See also:Egypt (1859), Idylls and Epigrams (186o, republished in 1892 as A Chaplet from the See also:Greek See also:Anthology), The See also:Queen and other Poems (1902), Collected Poems (1893); in prose, See also:biographies of See also:Carlyle (1887), See also:Emerson (1887), See also:Milton (189o), See also:Edward See also:Gibbon See also:Wakefield (1898); a See also:volume of remarkably original and fanciful tales, The See also:Twilight of the Gods (1888); a tragedy, Iphigenia in See also:Delphi (1890); A See also:Shari See also:History of See also:Italian Literature (1898); Essays in Librarianship and Bibliophily (1899); Essays of an Ex-librarian (1901). He was an extensive contributor to the See also:Encyclopaedia Britannica and the See also:Dictionary of See also:National See also:Biography, editor of the See also:International Library of Famous Literature, and co-editor, with E. See also:Gosse, of the elaborate English Literature: an illustrated See also:Record. So multifarious was his output, however, in contributions to reviews, &c.,and as translator or editor, that this See also:list represents only a small See also:part of his published work. He was a member of numerous learned literary See also:societies, British and See also:foreign. His facility as an expositor, and his See also:gift for lucid and acute generalization, together with his See also:eminence as a bibliophile, gave his work an authority which was universally recognized, though it sometimes suffered from his relying too much on his memory and his See also:power of generalizing—remarkable as both usually were—in cases requiring greater precision of statement in matters of detail. But as an interpreter, whether of biography or belles lettres, who brought an unusually wide range of book-learning, in its best sense, interestingly and comprehensibly before a large public, and at the same See also:time acceptably to the canons of careful scholarship, Dr Garnett's See also:writing was always characterized by clearness, See also:common sense and sympathetic appreciation. His See also:official career at the British Museum marked an See also:epoch in the management of the library, in the history of which his See also:place is second only to that of See also:Panizzi. Besides introducing the " sliding See also:press in 1887 he was responsible for reviving the publication of the See also:general See also:catalogue, the See also:printing of which, interrupted in 1841, was resumed under him in 188o, and gradually completed. The See also:antipodes of a Dryasdust, his human See also:interest in books made him an ideal librarian, and his See also:courtesy and helpfulness were outstanding features in a See also:personality of singular See also:charm. The whole bookish world looked on him as a friend. Among his " hobbies " was a study of See also:astrology, to which, without associating his name with it in public, he devoted prolonged inquiry. Under the See also:pseudonym of " A. G. See also:Trent " he published in 188o an See also:article (in the University See also:Magazine) on " The Soul and the Stars "—quoted in See also:Wilde and Dodson's See also:Natal Astrology. He satisfied himself that there was more truth in the old astrology than modern See also:criticism supposed, and he had intended to publish a further monograph on the subject, but the intention was frustrated by the See also:ill-See also:health which led up to his death on the 13th of See also:April 1906. He married (1863) an Irish wife, Olivia Narney Singleton (d. 1903), and had a family of six See also:children; his son Edward (b. 1868) being a well-known literary See also:man, whose wife translated Turgeneff's See also:works into English. (H. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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