The Papers of Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson

This collection includes the fiction and non-fiction writing of GLD, including prose, poems, academic and political writing, personal and professional correspondence, articles written for newspapers and magazines, and his autobiographical writing. It also includes some newscutting, and writings about GLD after he died.

<p>Significant quantities of letters from Dickinson survive in the collections of other individuals housed in the Archive Centre: see especially the papers of C. R. Ashbee, Oscar Browning, E. M. Forster, Roger Fry and Nathaniel Wedd.</p>

The majority of the papers of Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson were given to King's College by Sir Dennis Proctor in 1973. Sir Dennis had received them from E. M. Forster, Dickinson's literary executor, in about 1955. Several other Dickinson items were added to the Modern Archives from various sources before and after that date, and the opportunity is taken here to bring all related records together in a new listing.

Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson was born on 6 Aug. 1862, the son of portrait painter Cato Lowes Dickinson. He was brought up in a Christian Socialist environment and though he later rejected Christianity he saw his work in the context of its social utility. He came up to King's College from Charterhouse School in 1881 to study Classics, graduating in 1884 with a first class degree. After a short-lived career as a lecturer for the University Extension Movement and a year studying medicine, he returned to his early love of literature and began to write political histories. In 1887 he was elected to a Fellowship and lived at King's for the rest of his life. He was the College Librarian from 1893 - 96, and a Lecturer in History from 1886 to his retirement in 1920. He was involved in the establishment of the Economics and Politics Tripos and in the teaching of Political Science within the University. He also lectured at the London School of Economics for 15 years. With Lord Dickinson and Lord Bryce he planned the ideas behind of the League of Nations, resulting in his book 'The International Anarchy'. He died on 3 August 1932.

For further biographical information about Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson see:

'Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson: Fellow of King's 1887-1932', published by King's College, 1933, including memoirs of GLD by Roger Fry and J. T. Sheppard, a poem by GLD and a short bibliography.

'Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson' obituary in King's College Annual Report, 1932, pp. 1-2.

E. M. Forster 'Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson' (Edward Arnold: London, 1934)

Dennis Proctor 'The Autobiography of G. Lowes Dickinson and other unpublished writings' (Duckworth: London, 1973).