A collection of children's books formed by Eudo Colecestra Mason (1901-1969), who came to Edinburgh University as a lecturer in 1946 and became Professor of German in 1951. Mason was born in Colchester and his unusual Christian names were derived from Eudo Dapifer, an eleventh-century governor of Colchester and from the medieval name for the town (Colenceaster or Colneceastre). He went to school in Cambridge and studied in Oxford and Cambridge, holding posts as an English lektor at Muenster, Leipzig, and Basel, taking his doctorate in Leipzig with a thesis on the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke. He later became a D.Litt., Oxford. Mason was awarded the Friedrich-Gundolf-Preis by the German Academy for Language and Literature (Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung) in 1967 for his contribution to scholarship, in particular for his work and publications on Rilke. In 2004, the Chair of German at the Edinburgh University was renamed the Eudo C. Mason Chair of German.

Mason was assisted in his collecting of children's books by the antiquarian bookseller Marjorie McNaughtan, who, with her husband, ran McNaughtan's bookshop in Edinburgh from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. The collection consists of over 3,600 items in English, French and German, including 21 manuscripts, and dates mostly from the 19th century. The collection reflects the education and amusement of children down the years, and includes: chapbooks, many published in Glasgow and Paisley, folding-sheet games, card games, jig-saw puzzles, a toy theatre with sheets of plain and coloured characters, a folding peep show, and two horn books (acquired for him by Marjorie McNaughtan near the Inns of Court in London). There are also many 'penny dreadfuls', and an almost complete collection of 'Books for the Bairns'.

Organisation

The books have been catalogued individually and have the shelfmark 'Mas.'.

Acquisition

The collection was presented to the Library in 1969 after Professor Mason's death, in accordance with his wishes, by the executors of his will.

Related collections

Mason's correspondence and bibliographical notes on children's books were also presented to the Library at the same time. The manuscripts are held at Acc.4986. A selection of German-language books from his library was presented to Edinburgh University Library, along with his manuscript lecture notes, correspondence and poetry.

Online resources

Children's books in the National Library of Scotland