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The
chief
instigator
in
the
Library's
foundation
was Thomas
Carlyle.He
had
become
frustrated
by
the
facilities
available
at
the British
Museum
Library,
where
he
was
often
unable
to
find
a
seat
(obliging
him
to
perch
on
ladders),
where
he
complained
that
the
enforced
close
confinement
with
his
fellow
readers
gave
him
a
"museum
headache",
where
the
books
were
unavailable
for
loan,
and
where
he
found
the
library's
collections
of
pamphlets
and
other
material
relating
to
the French
Revolution and English
Civil
Warsinadequately
catalogued.
In
particular,
he
developed
an
antipathy
for
the
Keeper
of
Printed
Books, Anthony
Panizzi (despite
the
fact
that
Panizzi
had
allowed
him
many
privileges
not
granted
to
other
readers),
and
criticised
him,
as
the
"respectable
Sub-Librarian",
in
a
footnote
to
an
article
published
in
the Westminster
Review. Carlyle's
eventual
solution,
with
the
support
of
a
number
of
influential
friends,
was
to
call
for
the
establishment
of
a
private
subscription
library
from
which
books
could
be
borrowed.
The Earl
of
Clarendon was
the
Library's
first
President, William
Makepeace
Thackeray its
first
auditor,
and William
Gladstone and
Sir Edward
Bunbury sat
on
the
first
committee.
The
Belgian
freedom
fighter
and
former
Louvain
librarian Sylvain
Van
de
Weyer was
a
vice-president
from
1848
to
1874.
(Van
de
Weyer's
father-in-law Joshua
Bates was
a
founder
of
the Boston
Public
Library in
1852.)
A
vigorous
and
long-serving
presence
in
later
Victorian
times
was Richard
Monckton-Milnes,
later
Lord
Houghton,
a
friend
of Florence
Nightingale. Dickens was
among
the
founder
members.
In
more
recent
times, Kenneth
Clark and T.
S.
Eliot have
been
among
the
Library's
presidents,
and
Sir Harold
Nicolson,
Sir Rupert
Hart-Davis and
the Hon
Michael
Astor have
been
Chairmen.
(Sir) Charles
Hagberg
Wright,
who
served
as
Secretary
and
Librarian
from
1893
to
1940,
is
remembered
as
"the
real
architect
of
the
London
Library
as
it
is
today".
He
oversaw
the
rebuilding
of
its
premises
in
the
1890s,
the
re-cataloguing
and
rearrangement
of
its
collections
under
its
own
unique classification
system,
and
the
publication
of
its
catalogue
in
1903,
with
a
second
edition
in
1913–14
and
later
supplements.
In
1957
the
Library
suddenly
received
a
demand
from
the Westminster
City
Councilfor
rates
(despite
being
registered
as
a
tax-free
charity),
and
the Inland
Revenue was
also
involved.
At
that
time,
most
publishers
donated
free
copies
of
their
books
to
the
library.
The
final
appeal
was
turned
down
by
the Court
of
Appeal in
1959,
and
a
letter
in The
Times of
5
November
from
the
President
and
Chairman
(T.
S.
Eliot and Rupert
Hart-Davis)
appealed
for
funds.
An
auction
of
manuscripts
from
many
authors
on
22
June
1960
raised
£17,000
and
£25,000
respectively;
enough
to
clear
debts
and
legal
expenses
of
£20,000.
At
the
sale T.
E.
Lawrence items
from
his
brother
fetched
£3,800,
Eliot's The
Waste
Land fetched
£2,800,
and Lytton
Strachey's Queen
Victoria £1,800,
though
170
inscribed
books
and
pamphlets
from John
Masefield fetched
only
£200,
which
Hart-Davis
thought
"shamefully
low".
The Queen and Queen
Mother both
gave
some
rare
and
valuable
old
books.
In
the
1990s,
the
Library
was
one
of
a
number
of
academic
and
specialist
libraries
targeted
by
serial
book
thief William
Jacques.
The
identification
of
several
rare
books
put
up
for
auction
as
having
been
stolen
from
the
Library
led
the
police
to
investigate
Jacques
and
to
his
eventual
prosecution
and
conviction.
Security
measures
at
the
Library
have
since
been
improved..
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