Uncovered: John Locke tell-all, Edward Lear manuscripts

Spring cleaning is still going on at the British Library, apparently, because documents relating to two major English writers have been uncovered there recently.

One discovery came from among the papers of Huguenot journalist and biographer Pierre Des Maizeaux.

Des Maizeaux, a great admirer of John Locke, had evidently interviewed an anonymous friend of that famous philosopher as part of another project.

That friend, identified in a peer-reviewed paper as James Tyrrell, described Locke as a liar, a plagiarist, and an all-around unpleasant person.

The Guardian shares passages of Tyrrell’s specific criticisms of Locke, as well as a link to history lecturer Dr. Felix Waldmann’s article on his discovery.

On a much more pleasant note, we also have three previously unknown manuscripts from the English nonsense poet Edward Lear.

The Times Literary Supplement article on the discovery is behind a partial paywall, but you can still read a bit from one of the two poems that were found along with an unpublished letter, if you don’t subscribe.

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