Slater, Michael (1936-) academic and writerMore Info on CreatorLess Info on Creator
Michael Slater, Emeritus Professor of Victorian Literature at Birkbeck College, University of London, edited "The Dickensian" from 1958-1977. He was President of the International Dickens Fellowship and also of the Dickens Society of America. Michael Slater's books include "Dickens and Women" [Dent, 1983], "Douglas Jerrold : 1803-1857" (Duckworth, 2002], "Charles Dickens" [Yale, 2011], and "The Great Charles Dickens Scandal" [Yale, 2012]
Longley, Katharine (1920-2009) Dickens scholarMore Info on CreatorLess Info on Creator
Katharine Longley was born on 8 September 1920 and brought up in Clapham in London, where she won a scholarship to Clapham Girls' High School. From 1938 she was a student at University College, London, graduating from there with a B.A. Honours degree in Classics in 1941. After a period spent working as a librarian she returned to University College in 1947 to undertake the Archive Diploma Course in the School of Librarianship, graduating from there in 1948. She became Part Time Archivist at York Minster Library, retiring from that post in 1983.
Miss Longley became a distinguished authority on Recusant history and published important articles on the subject in the 'Ampleforth Journal' and 'Recusant History'. In 1966 also she published under the name of Mary Claridge (her mother's maiden name) Margaret Clitherow 1556 - 1586, a biography of the Catholic saint which was reprinted 1986. Her Recusant papers and related research material are now deposited at Ampleforth Abbey.
As a result of becoming acquainted with the late Miss Helen Wickham, Miss Longley became interested in the subject of Ellen Ternan, later Mrs Geoffrey Wharton Robinson, and the debate surrounding her relationship with Charles Dickens. Helen Wickham had been brought up by Ellen Robinson alongside her own daughter Gladys, and was devoted to the memory of her foster-mother. She was much distressed, as Gladys, later Mrs Reece, had been, by the surfacing in the 1930s of allegations that Ellen had been Dickens's mistress, and Katharine Longley promised her that she would take up the subject and test these allegations as rigorously as possible. Miss Longley then embarked on several years of indefatigable and very extensive archival research, investigating in the greatest detail the background and history of the Ternan family and subjecting to intense critical scrutiny all surviving evidence concerning the relationship between Dickens and all members of the family especially Ellen. Helen Wickham bequeathed to Katharine Longley her entire archive of Ternan-related material (books, manuscripts, family photographs, address books, etc.), which she herself had inherited from Gladys Reece. Miss Longley drew on this material in compiling her as yet unpublished manuscript, 'A Pardoner's Tale: The Story of Dickens and Ellen Ternan' and in her articles on Ellen in 'The Dickensian', notably 'The Real Ellen Ternan', vol.81 (1985). Her conclusion was that all the evidence pointed towards Dickens's relationship with Ellen having been a platonic one. Miss Longley began depositing the material in the University of London Library and allowed other scholars access to it, as well as to the material still in her own keeping. Among those indebted to Miss Longley in this respect was the biographer Claire Tomalin who, though she reached a different conclusion about Dickens's relationship with Ellen, dedicated her book 'The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens' to Katharine Longley. In 1990 Katharine Longley entrusted all remaining material in her Ternan archive, including the typescript of 'A Pardoner's Tale', to Professor Michael Slater, former Honorary Editor of 'The Dickensian' with instructions to him to add it in due course to the material already deposited by herself in the University of London Library.
Scope and ContentSubject files on Katharine Longley and Ellen Ternan. Includes correspondence with Katharine Longley about Ellen Ternan. Also includes general discussions regarding Charles Dickens/Ternan scholarship and the relationship between Dickens and Ternan. Photograph of Katharine Longley (1975).
Conditions governing accessOpen for research although at least 24 hours notice required. Access to some files might be restricted by the Freedom of Information Act. See archivist for details.
Senate House Library holds the Katharine Longley papers (MS1003) and also archives of the Ternan family (MS915, MS1177, MS1179). The Library also holds Michael Slater's research files on Douglas Jerrold (MS1170).