I’m still managing not to reply to work emails – I merely glance at my inbox and delete anything irrelevant – and I haven’t touched my interview transcriptions this month. From that point of view, I’m succeeding at this ‘having a holiday’ July. However, my eBay purchases arrived earlier this week, and I could hardly not look at those, could I?

Prospectus, 1913-14

The school prospectus for 1913-14 contained no mention of James Easson in its examination results. He’d have been 17 or 18 by then.  He was also absent from the ‘List of Distinctions gained by Former Pupils’ – but he wouldn’t have had time to get any before the Great War began. I already knew that he served in the war, was invalided out in 1917, and got his Royal Academy of Music certificates in 1918 and 1921.

Oh well, you win some, you lose some. I discovered that the school provided instrumental and vocal instruction – but the teachers’ names weren’t those of the men with whom Easson studied; maybe he had private tuition.

The other alumnus in whom I was mildly interested – the one at the Scottish publishers whom Easson and Wiseman had initially considered, before signing a contract with Nelsons – did appear in the prospectus. He had attained Second Class Honours in Rhetoric, English Language and Literature at Edinburgh University during 1912-13 and graduated with an M.A.

APER: Fifty Years of Progress 1898-1948

This guy also appeared in my other purchase – a jubilee publication celebrating the Association of Publishers’ Educational Representatives.

It was pleasing to spot a contribution from one of the older editors at Thomas Nelson’s, too. By 1948, he had retired to Cornwall – he’d been living there most of the time before retiral, anyway.

Unfortunately, although I read this book from cover to cover – and it was interesting, showing the important role that the educational representatives held, liaising between publisher and schools – it soon became evident that a lot of people, some of them reps, and others with different roles in education, had been commissioned to write a few pages to celebrate the organisation’s 50-year jubilee. By the end of it, I was in no doubt as to the nature of their role. I’d also noted that there were lists of members and important officials – but the book had no direct bearing on my own research. There were some amusing anecdotes, and I was reminded that Thomas Nelson’s educational representatives always wore top hats when they were out visiting schools. It distinguished them from ordinary travelling salesmen. 

As that retired editor joked, school staff were unlikely to refuse admission to a smartly-dressed gent in a top hat!