| Description | Correspondence to John Ramsay Allardyce Nicoll, mostly written to him while Professor of English Language and Literature, University of Birmingham, and Director of the Shakespeare Institute at Stratford-upon-Avon. As an eminent scholar of English drama, Nicoll numbered many actors, theatre producers and dramatists and their letters form a large proportion of this collection. Correspondents include Gordon Bottomley, Edward Gordon Craig, Christopher Fry, Sir Barry Jackson and Laura Knight. A number of letters are written to both Nicoll and his first wife, Josephine or solely to Josephine Nicoll. |
| Administrative History | John Ramsay Allardyce Nicoll (1894-1976) was Professor of English Language and Literature, University of Birmingham, 1945-1961 and Director of the Shakespeare Institute at Stratford-upon-Avon from its establishment by him in 1951. Nicoll was an internationally renowned authority on the history of English drama and was a prolific writer on this subject and on the theory of drama, publishing some thirty books between 1922 and 1973. He was married twice; his first wife, Josephine Calina, a Polish refugee, died in 1962.
Reference: The University of Birmingham, Research Libraries Bulletin (Number 1. Winter 1994). |