Margaret Campbell Crum (9 February 1921 – 18 July 1986) was a British scholar of English poetry and music. A librarian at the

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second- ...

at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, she was the winner of the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars span ...

Rose Mary Crawshay Prize The Rose Mary Crawshay Prize is a literary prize for female scholars, inaugurated in 1888 by the British Academy. Description The prize, set up in 1888, is said by the British Academy to be the only UK literary prize specifically for female sch ...

in 1966.

Family and education

Crum was born in

Farnham Farnham ( /ˈfɑːnəm/) is a market town and civil parish in Surrey, England, around southwest of London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, close to the county border with Hampshire. The town is on the north branch of the River Wey, a trib ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, in 1921. Her father, the Rev.

John Macleod Campbell Crum The Rev. Canon John Macleod Campbell Crum (12 October 1872 - 19 December 1958) was an Anglican priest, author and hymnwriter.''Crockford's Clerical Directory'' (1932), "Crum, John Macleod Campbell", p. 300. Family and education Crum was born at ...

, was rector of Farnham from 1913 to 1928 and later canon of

Canterbury Cathedral Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England. It forms part of a World Heritage Site. It is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, currently Justin Welby, leader of the ...

. Her great-grandfather was the Scottish chemist

Walter Crum Walter Crum FRS (1796–1867) was a Scottish chemist and businessman. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1844. Life He was born in Glasgow, the second son of Alexander Crum of Thornliebank, a merchant there, and of Jane, the eldest da ...

. She attended

Wycombe Abbey School , motto_translation = Go in faith , established = 1896 , type = Independent boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Headmistress , head = J. Duncan , chair_label = Chair ...

, graduating in 1939, and then took a First in English from

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Ir ...

. She then read for a

B.Litt. Bachelor of Letters (BLitt or LittB; Latin ' or ') is a second undergraduate university degree in which students specialize in an area of study relevant to their own personal, professional, or academic development. This area of study may have been t ...

at Somerville, during which time she also taught and began work on the indexing of English poetry in the manuscript collection of the Bodleian Library.

Career

Crum joined the

as a permanent staff member in 1953. For her edition of ''The Poems of Henry King'' (1965), which was her B.Litt. thesis, Crum won the

in 1966. She went on to serve as Assistant Librarian at the Bodleian. Between 1953 and 1981, she was a specialist in the Western Manuscripts department, concentrating on literature and music. She was responsible for tracing the provenance of

James Sherard James Sherard (1 November 1666 – 12 February 1738) was an English apothecary, botanist, and amateur musician. Career He was born in Bushby, Leicestershire to George and Mary Sherwood; it is unknown why his surname was changed. His older brothe ...

's musical collection in the library, publishing a short article and lecturing on the subject at Oxford in 1982. Crum's magnum opus, ''First-line index of English poetry, 1500-1800, in manuscripts of the Bodleian Library, Oxford'', was published in two large volumes in 1969. She followed this up with learning German, and cataloguing and describing the Bodleian's manuscripts of the composer

Felix Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include sy ...

, publishing volumes in 1980 and 1983. The latter was considered an indispensable reference work, appreciated for its careful identification of several sketches and previously unfamiliar pieces by the composer. In 1976, on the 350th anniversary of the establishment of the Heather Professorship of Music at Oxford, Crum organised an exhibition of musical artefacts at the Bodleian. She died in 1986.

Selected works

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crum, Margaret Rose Mary Crawshay Prize winners 1921 births 1986 deaths 20th-century English women writers 20th-century English writers People associated with the Bodleian Library Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford