domestic difficulties of a new junior in his twenties; but G. did. He found me rooms himself, and let me share his private room at the University. I do not think that my experience was peculiar.
He was the very master of men
. Anyone who worked under him could see (or at least suspect) that he neglected some sides of his own work: finding, especially, the sort of half-baked âresearchâ, and dreary thesis-writing by the serious minded but semi-educated hunters of the M.A., of which there was far too much, an exceeding weariness, from which he sometimes took refuge in flight. Yet he created not a miserable little âdepartmentâ, but a team. A team fired not only with a departmental esprit de corps, determined to put âEnglishâ at the head of the Arts departments, but inspired also with a missionary zeal. . . . .
A personal contribution of his was his doctrine of lightheartedness: dangerous, perhaps, in Oxford, necessary in Yorkshire. No Yorkshireman, or woman, was ever in danger of regarding his class in finals as a matter of indifference (even if it did not have a lifelong effect on his salary as a school teacher): the poet might âsit in the third and laughâ, but the Yorkshire student would not. But he could be, and was, encouraged to play a little, to look outside the âsyllabusâ, to regard his studies as something larger and more amusing than a subject for an examination. This note Gordon struck and insisted on, and even expressed in print in the little brochure which he had made for the use of his students. There was very little false solemnity, except rarely and that among the students.
As for my side: the foundations were already securely laid for me, and the lines of development marked out. But, subject always to his unobtrusive control, I had a âfree handâ. Every encouragement was given to development on the mediæval and linguistic side; and a friendly rivalry grew up between two, nearly equal, divisions. Each had its own âseminarsâ; and there were sometimes combined meetings. Quite the happiest and most balanced âSchoolâ I have seen. I think it might be called a âSchoolâ. Gordon found âEnglishâ in Leeds a departmental subject (I rather fancy you could not get a degree in it alone) and left it a school of studies (in bud). When he arrived he shared a box of glazed bricks, mainly furnished with hot water pipes, with the Professor of French, as their private room. Mere assistants possibly had a hat-peg somewhere. When he left we had âEnglish Houseâ, where every member had a separate room (not to mention a bathroom!) and a common room for students: and with this centre the growing body of students became a cohesive unit, and derived some of the benefits (or distant reflections of them) that we associate with a university rather than a municipal college. It would not have been difficult to build on this foundation. But I fancy that, after he left, the thing just âran onâ, and did not fall into hands of the same quality. In any case numbers fell and finances changed. AndVice-Chancellors. Sir Michael Sadler I imagine was a helpful superior; and he left about the same time.
47 To Stanley Unwin
[Unwin wrote on 4 December to say that Foyleâs bookshop in London were to issue
The Hobbit
under the imprint of their Childrenâs Book Club, and that this had enabled Allen & Unwin to reprint the book. This was all the more desirable as the previous stock of copies had been burnt during an air-raid on London.]
7 December 1942
20 Northmoor Road, Oxford
Dear Mr Unwin,
Thank you for your note, containing two items of hope. I have for some time intended to write and enquire whether in the present situation it was of any use, other than private and family amusement, to endeavour to complete the sequel to
The Hobbit.
I have worked on it at intervals since 1938, all such intervals in fact as trebled official work,