English and Drama blog

On literature and theatre collections from the 16th century to the present day

08 November 2024

The Ashley Library of Thomas J. Wise

The Ashley Library has been described as “the literary crime of the century” [1]. We explore its intriguing history with Malcolm Polfreman, Cataloguer in our Printed Heritage Collections, who has been working with the collection.

The Ashley Library was the passion of Thomas James Wise (1859 to 1937). Growing up in London, in humble circumstances, Wise spent his youth obsessively hunting down cheap editions of seventeenth to nineteenth century literature. Later, rising to commodities trader in the City, he applied the skills of a dealer to amass perhaps the finest private collection of books and pamphlets in the country. He named it after Ashley Road, in Hornsey, London, where he lived in the 1890s. The collection was prized for the quality of its first editions, many of them discovered by Wise himself, and by the turn of the twentieth century Wise was a titan of the bibliographic establishment.

 

A formal black and white photograph of Thomas Wise, he is looking at the camera and leaning with one elbow on a desk that shows some paperwork.
Thomas J. Wise. From volume 2 of his Ashley Library catalogue (1905-1908 edition) BL shelfmark: L.R.32.a. [2]

 

By 1934, however, two young bibliographers, John Carter and Graham Pollard were on his trail. In their wonderfully understated An enquiry into the nature of certain nineteenth century pamphlets, they sensationally showed that at least 47 of Wise's pamphlets were either forged, piracies, or suspicious [3] – we now know the real figure to be at least 100 out of around 5000 total volumes [4]. Wise died in disgrace just three years later, in 1937, whereupon the then British Museum Library purchased the collection, recognising its literary significance.

So, how exactly had Wise done it? In short, Wise had mastered the art of creating a fake ‘earlier’ edition. First, he would find an obscure work by a major author. “Sonnets from the Portuguese” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, for instance, was perfect, being published in 1850 but only within an anthology [5]. Wise reprinted the text as a separate pamphlet, choosing an old-looking font. He replaced the title page with a new one containing a fake earlier date (in this case 1847 instead of 1850), shortened the title to just “Sonnets”, and omitted any trace of a publisher [6].

Bingo! He had ‘discovered’ a valuable, first edition. Putting “not for publication” on the pamphlet’s wrapper would helpfully explain why no copies had previously come to light. He then retained a copy (or, in this case, two) for the Ashley Library with others being sold, mostly to wealthy American collectors.

 

A copy of Wise’s forgery of Elizabeth Barratt Browning’s Sonnets, it is open on the title page and shows the Ashley Library stamp in red ink
A copy of the forgery of Elizabeth Barratt Browning’s Sonnets [Ashley 223 & Ashley 4715]

 

Yet the act of creating accomplished forgeries was only half the story. Wise excelled at hiding them in plain sight. A ‘creation’ would arouse less suspicion if the British Museum Library or the Bodleian Library had a copy and so he would quietly donate one. His prodigious 11-volume Ashley catalogue (1922-1936) was a perfect tool for disinformation: his entry for Browning’s Sonnets fabricated a plausible provenance trail for the copy at Ashley 223 [7]. Signatures too could suggest legitimacy, as when Wise shockingly persuaded the confused, elderly Algernon Swinburne to sign a forged copy of his Cleopatra (1866) [8].

 

Image shows an open copy of the forged Cleopatra from the Ashley Library, with Algernon Swinburne’s signature on the left hand side in ink
The forged Cleopatra [Ashley 1857] with Swinburne’s shaky signature

 

Perhaps Wise feared the net would close in. His forging probably lasted only from about 1887 to 1900. By around 1900, however, he had a second trick up his sleeve: theft. Wise began buying cheap, imperfect copies of quarto plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, which he then ‘improved’. The ‘making up’ of perfect copies was nothing unusual for nineteenth century collectors. What sets Wise apart is that he stole pages from copies in the British Museum Library to do it! He damaged at least forty early modern plays from the Garrick collection in this way [9].

But it was the forgeries that ultimately betrayed Wise. The sheer number of his ‘new editions’ – plain-looking pamphlets, ‘for private circulation’, and in pristine condition – aroused suspicion.

Carter and Pollard were tenacious sleuths, Pollard having honed his forensic skills working as an MI5 spy. By the 1930s they could call on new scientific techniques (that Wise could scarcely have anticipated) to provide conclusive proof of forgery. For example, the paper used for Wise’s supposedly 1847 version of Browning’s Sonnets was found to be composed of chemical wood, with a trace of rag, which meant it could not have been manufactured before 1874, and the unusual typeface dated from after 1880 and was probably forged around 1893 [10].

Wise’s thefts only came to light after the Second World War. Wormholes and stitching, misaligned in copies that Wise had owned or sold, lined up perfectly with adjacent pages in copies at the British Museum Library [11]. Research at this time also showed that Wise had created his forgeries in partnership with fellow bibliographer – and fellow forger – Harry Buxton Forman [12].

 

Image shows part of the Ashley Library neatly arranged on shelves in storage at the British Library. The shelves are white and the spines of the volumes are various colours. The perspective is at an angle
Part of the Ashley Library

 

Quite apart from the forgeries, the Ashley Library is astonishing: a veritable Who’s Who of the most glittering writers and poets of the English language – Shakespeare, Dryden, Byron, Poe, Mary Shelley, the Brontë sisters, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Tennyson, Conrad, and so on – as well as less-feted figures. The books, many in plush Riviere bindings, include poems and novels in multiple editions, as well as proof copies (some annotated by the author); anthologies; critical analyses; catalogues of their work; and biographies.

Ironically, inveterate collector that Wise was, at Ashley 2790 there is even a pristine copy of An enquiry, the very book by Carter & Pollard that in 1934 led so swiftly to his downfall!

 

 

Written by Malcolm Polfreman, Cataloguer, Printed Heritage Collections.

The Ashley Library is being catalogued as part of the British Library’s Hidden Collections programme. Part of the Ashley Library is currently accessible with the remainder expected to become available in 2025.

The available items can be consulted in our reading rooms, via our online catalogue, here: British Library Interim Catalogue

For enquiries, please contact our Reference Services Team.

 

 

References:

[1] Joseph Hone, The Book Forger: The True Story of a Literary Crime That Fooled the World (London: Chatto & Windus, 2024), dust jacket.

[2] Thomas James Wise, The Ashley Library. A catalogue of printed books, manuscripts, and autograph letters collected by T. J. Wise, 2 vols. (London: printed for private circulation, 1905-1908). [BL shelfmark: L.R.32.a.]

[3] John Carter and Graham Pollard, An Enquiry into the Nature of Certain Nineteenth Century Pamphlets (London: Constable, 1934), pp. 86-95. [BL shelfmark: 011899.aaa.71.] Alternatively, see 2nd ed. (London: Scolar Press, 1983), a reprint of the 1934 edition (with identical pagination) but with a preface, corrections, notes, and epilogue [BL shelfmark: X.950/30622].

[4] Nicolas Barker and John Collins, A Sequel to an Enquiry into the Nature of Certain Nineteenth Century Pamphlets by John Carter and Graham Pollard (London: Scolar Press, 1983), p.122 [BL shelfmark: X.950/30621].

[5] ‘Sonnets from the Portuguese’. In Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Poems, New edn. 2 vols. (London: Chapman & Hall, 1850), II, pp.438-480. [BL shelfmark: Ashley 215]

[6] Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnets (Reading: not for publication, 1847 [that is, circa 1893]). [BL shelfmark: Ashley 223 & Ashley 4715]

[7] Thomas James Wise, The Ashley Library. A catalogue of printed books, manuscripts, and autograph letters collected by T. J. Wise, 11 vols. (London: printed for private circulation, 1922-1936), I, pp. 97-8 [BL shelfmark: RAR 820.16]

[8] Algernon Charles Swinburne, Cleopatra (London: J.C. Hotten, 1866 [that is, circa 1890?]). [BL shelfmark: Ashley 1857]

[9] David Fairweather Foxon, Thomas J. Wise and the Pre-Restoration Drama: A Study in Theft and Sophistication (London: Bibliographical Society, 1959), pp.11-35 [BL shelfmark: RAR 098.3]

[10] Carter and Pollard, 2nd edn (1983), pp.167-8

[11] Foxon, pp.7-9.

[12] Carter and Pollard, 2nd edn (1983), “Epilogue”, pp34-38. See also Barker and Collins, pp.17-20

.