John Newcome, Verses addressed to Matthew Prior. English, 1719

John Newcome, Master of St John’s College (c. 1684-1765): verses addressed to his fellow Johnian Matthew Prior ‘at Wimpole [Hall, Cambridgeshire] from St John’s College Cambridge 14 November 1719’. A printed version of the verses, with certain alterations is found in Prior’s Miscellaneous works of His late Excellency Matthew Prior Esq. (London, 1740), pp. xl.

Paul Muldoon, ‘Why Brownlee Left’. English, 1986

Paul Muldoon (b. 1951): ‘Why Brownlee Left’, written out in this copy by the poet while Judith E. Wilson Visiting Fellow at Fitzwilliam College, 1986. With a related press cutting from the Sunday Times, 14 Dec. 1986. This poem was published in Why Brownlee Left (1980).

Christopher Middleton, Poems. English, 1963

Christopher Middleton (b. 1926): ‘Crossing’ and ‘Difficulties of a Revisionist’, fair copies written by the author. ‘Crossing’ is glossed with a note on how to read the poem, ‘so as to make the MS, at least, what you (don’t you? or is it bookseller’s talk only?) a (or an?) unicum’. [sic]

Peter Mason, Miscellaneous scholarly papers. English, Greek and Hebrew, nineteenth century

Notes on the Rothenstein portrait of Alfred Marshall. English, 1967

George MacBeth, ‘The Castle’. English, 1965

George MacBeth (1932-92): ‘The Castle, after Le Chastel d’Amours’, 1965. The poem was first published in The Listener, 15 July 1965, p. 93.

William J. Locke, ‘The Incomparable Paragot’. English, before 1907

William John Locke, of St John’s College (1863-1930): ‘The Incomparable Paragot’, n.d., but before 1907. Apparently the germ of Locke’s novel The Beloved Vagabond (London: John Lane, 1907), which helped establish his reputation as a novelist. See ODNB. Parts of this MS are printed word for word in Chapters 9, 12, 13, 16 and 21 of the novel.

Laurence Lerner, Two poems. English, 1962-3

Laurence Lerner, of St John’s College (b. 1925): worksheets and drafts for two poems, ‘Midnight Swim’ and ‘Don’t Hold my Hand’, c. 1962. Both poems were published in Lerner’s collection The Directions of Memory (London: Chatto and Windus, 1963), pp. 31 and 51.

Jean Korelitz, ‘Bottles’. English, 1986

Jean Hanff Korelitz, of St John’s College (b. 1961): ‘Bottles’, a poem of twenty-four lines, inscribed ‘For my father’.

Benjamin Hall Kennedy, Poem to the Fellowship. Latin, 1885

Benjamin Hall Kennedy, Fellow of St John’s College (1804-89): Latin verses addressed to the Master and Fellows on the occasion of his election to a professorial Fellowship in 1885. The verses are published in The Eagle 14 (1887), 44, with a relevant note on p. 46. See also The Eagle 14, 110-12.