Catalogue of the Bertram R David "Robert Southey" Collection

R.G. Moyles is a professor of English at the University of Alberta.

Many of us, as scholars, will forever be indebted to those dedicated
“collectors” of books, manuscripts, and memorabilia who have had the
good sense to bequeath their collections to libraries, knowing that
their dispersal becomes impossible and care a certainty. One of those
wholly deserving of the praise bestowed on him in the prefaces to this
bibliography is Bertram R. Davis of Bristol, England, whose massive and
invaluable Southey collection is now housed in the Rare Book Room of
Waterloo University.

Though the collection is primarily comprised of the works of the
well-known Romantic poet Robert Southey (1774-1843), and the
correspondence concerning Southey that Davis amassed while engaged in
his collecting, as a whole it leads us, as Britton puts it, “into some
lesser-trod literary byways of the nineteenth century.” The divisions
determining this bibliography’s organization give a clear view of the
amazing range and diversity of the collection: “Materials by and about
Robert Southey”; “Materials Relating to Thomas Chatterton and the
City of Bristol”; “Precursors of and Influences on Robert
Southey”; “Lake Poets and the Lake Country”; “Family, Friends,
and Contemporaries”; “Spain, Portugal, and Brazil”; “British
Isles”; “France and the Revolution”; “Russia and Napoleon”;
“Travel”; “Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries”; “Bertram R.
Davis Correspondence”; and “Manuscripts Held in Trust.” The
collection is a valuable asset and this bibliography admirably attests
to that fact: it is accessible, comprehensive, and visually attractive.
Only two things remain to be said. First, collections like this do not
miraculously come to Canada, and Waterloo owes a great debt to Professor
Warren Ober for the part he played in its acquisition. And second, it
reflects to the credit of any library that insists the primary reason
for such a catalogue is to attract new readers and scholars to the
collection. One hopes this catalogue will do just that.