Alan Noel Latimer ('Tim') Munby (1913–1974) was an English author, writer and librarian.

Life and career

Born in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

, Munby was educated at

Clifton College ''The spirit nourishes within'' , established = 160 years ago , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent boarding and day school , religion = Christian , president = , head_label = Head of College , head ...

and

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city ...

. He is best known for his five-volume study of the eccentric nineteenth-century book collector Sir

Thomas Phillipps Sir Thomas Phillipps, 1st Baronet (2 July 1792 – 6 February 1872), was an English antiquary and book collector Book collecting is the collecting of books, including seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, ...

, and for his slim volume of ghost stories, ''The Alabaster Hand'', which includes three tales written in Oflag VII B, a German prisoner-of-war camp near Eichstätt, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. These stories – 'The Topley Place Sale', 'The Four Poster' and 'The White Sack' – featured in a prison-camp magazine, ''Touchstone'', edited by Elliott Viney, which was produced on a printing press owned by the Bishop of Eichstätt, Michael Rackl. Munby worked in the antiquarian book trade with Bernard Quaritch, Limited (1935–37) and Sotheby & Company (1937–39, 1945–47). He became Librarian at

in 1947 and Fellow in 1948; he was J. P. R. Lyell Reader in Bibliography,

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

(1962–63) and Sandars Reader in Bibliography,

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

(1969–70). He was elected President of the

Bibliographical Society Founded in 1892, The Bibliographical Society is the senior learned society dealing with the study of the book and its history in the United Kingdom. Largely owing to the efforts of Walter Arthur Copinger, who was supported by Richard Copley ...

in 1974 and died during his term of office.

Reception

Boucher and McComas praised the stories in ''The Alabaster Hand'' as "quietly terrifying modernizations of the

M.R. James Montague Rhodes James (1 August 1862 – 12 June 1936) was an English author, medievalist scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–1918), and of Eton College (1918–1936). He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambrid ...

tradition".

Personal life

Munby married twice. His first marriage was to Joan Margaret Edelsten; and his second to Sheila Rachel Crowther-Smith.''The Author's and Writer's Who's Who'' (4th ed, 1960)

Works

Books

*(ed.) ''Letters to Leigh Hunt from his son Vincent'' (Cloanthus Press, 1934) *(with Desmond Flower) ''English Poetical Autographs'' (Cassell, 1938) * "Some Caricatures Of Book-Collectors - An Essay" (printed for private circulation by William H. Robinson Ltd, Christmas 1948) *''The Alabaster Hand and other Ghost Stories'' (Dobson, 1949) *''Phillips Studies'', 5 vols. (Cambridge University Press, 1951–1960) *''The Cult of the Autograph Letter in England'' (London: Athlone Press, 1962) *''Connoisseurs and Medieval Miniatures 1750-1850'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972) *''Essays and Papers'' (ed. Nicolas Barker) (Scolar Press, 1977)

Short Stories

*''The Four-Poster''. Touchstone, December 1944. Collected in The Alabaster Hand (1949). *''The White Sack''. Touchstone, January 1945. Collected in The Alabaster Hand (1949). *''The Topley Place Sale''. Touchstone, March 1945. Collected in The Alabaster Hand (1949). *''The Inscription''. Chamber’s Journal, Date unknown. Collected in The Alabaster Hand (1949). *''The Devil’s Autograph''. Cambridge Review, Date unknown. Collected in The Alabaster Hand (1949).

References

External links

*
King's College Library: 'Tim' Munby
short biography with images of materials from Munby's papers at King's College Cambridge Library 1913 births 1974 deaths People educated at Clifton College English writers Ghost story writers {{England-writer-stub