Philip Gaskell
Philip Gaskell (1926 - 2001) was a renowned British bibliographer and bestselling author.[1]
Life
He was born in a Quaker family in London in 1926. He was educated at the Dragon school, Oxford, and at Oundle. [2]
In 1948, he enrolled in the English course at King's College, Cambridge University.[3]
He died in 2001.
Early Career
At Glasgow University, he worked as master of a hall of residence and keeper of the early books in the library.[4]
He served as librarian and fellow of Trinity College.[5]
He later taught at Caltech.[6]
Later Career
His famous pupils include Don McKenzie, professor of English at Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand, then Oxford, and James Mosley, librarian of the St Bride printing library.[7]
He is equally famous for his pioneering bibliography of the 18th-century Birmingham printer, John Baskerville.[8]
The major highlight of his career was a major revision of RB McKerrow's classic Introduction To Bibliography. According to The Guardian newspaper, his New Introduction To Bibliography (1972, latest revision 1985) was revolutionary in treating the object of bibliography as not just the text but all the processes that had gone into making it. It has become a classic, used all over the world.[9]
Bibliography
His notable books are:[10]
- A New Introduction to Bibliography
- Standard Written English: A Guide
- Landmarks in English Literature
- From Writer to Reader: Studies in Editorial Method
- Landmarks in Classical Literature
- A Lion Among the Ladies