Selby Wright Collection

Name

Selby Wright Collection

Description

A selection of 20th-century printed material from the collection of Ronald William Vernon Selby Wright FRSE FSAScot (1908-1995). Selby Wright was a Church of Scotland minister, theologian and broadcaster, who served as minister of the Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh from 1937 until he retired in 1977. He also served as a military padre, chaplain of Fettes College and as a leader of boys' clubs in Edinburgh. The topics of the books in the collection reflect the many activities and interests of Selby Wright during his career. There are 101 volumes of Selby Wright's own commissioned bindings that consist mainly of works of popular theology either written or edited by Selby Wright such as 'Asking why', 'Our club', 'Asking them questions' and a long run of 'The Scottish forces magazine' which he edited. The remainder of the volumes in the collection consist of paperback monographs, magazines, newspaper supplements and ephemera on related topics such as forms of worship, church publications and Christian outreach. Also present are several pamphlets sharply critical of current anti-Semitism shortly before and during Second World War, and of the British Union of Fascists shortly before and during World War II, as well as a copy of 'Terror in Europe: the fate of the Jews' by Alexei Tolstoy and Thomas Mann. There are pamphlets recording action at several theatres of war, with the North African campaign being particularly heavily represented and newspaper supplements many of which are devoted to the funeral of Sir Winston Churchill in 1965. There are also several runs of magazines of some Edinburgh schools besides booklets issued in conjunction with the release of celebrated films of the 1960s and 1970s. Both among the paperbacks and the commissioned bindings are large runs of Scottish regimental magazines. The ephemera includes material as diverse as school concert programmes, Selby Wright's own examination script as a theology student, a Robert Louis Stevenson Club luncheon menu and numerous press-cuttings.

Organisation

The books have been catalogued individually and have the shelfmark 'RSW.'. View collection inventory list.

Acquisition

The collection was part of collection of Selby Wright's personal papers bequeathed to the Library in 1996, the books being transferred to the printed collections in 1998.

Related collections

The manuscripts are held at Acc.11296.

Shelfmark

RSW.

Subjects

Education

Theology

Second World War