Sale of Iris Murdoch’s book collection to fund prestigious scholarship

MONEY raised from the expected sale of famed author Iris Murdoch’s working library will create a prestigious scholarship in her name, it emerged yesterday.

A huge collection of books, ranging across philosophy, religion and psychology, was among an array of British literature being displayed at the Antiquarian Book Fair in Kensington, west London.

Dame Iris collected 1,200 books, including works by philosophers such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Karl Marx as well as famed ancient writer Plato.

Many of the items bear her ownership inscription, the date, and a place name such as Oxford, St Anne’s or Somerville College.

Handwritten notes also appear at the back of some of the papers in which Dame Iris remarked on whether she agreed or disagreed with certain arguments.

The collection further includes makeshift bookmarks, such as pressed flowers or leaves.

The collection, valued at about stg£150,000, is being sold through Rachel Lee Rare Books of Bristol.

Ms Lee, speaking at the fair, said: “Just recently, it was decided the money from the sale of the collection would fund a scholarship at St Anne’s College in Oxford.”

Dame Iris taught at the college and the scholarship will be in her name, Ms Lee said.

Dame Iris’s husband, John Bayley, decided to sell the collection because he did not have enough room at his house in Oxford since he had remarried.

Ms Lee said she was contacted last September about the possibility of the collection going on sale.

She explained: “I think John had kept things like her novels because of the sentimental value but her philosophy books did not have the same sentimental value.”

Ms Lee speculated that a library may be interested in purchasing the collection, with previous press reports suggesting the British Library.

Mr Bayley, a former Warton professor of English literature at Oxford University, wrote moving memoirs about his wife’s descent into Alzheimer’s which inspired the award-winning film Iris.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people were at the sale in Kensington’s Olympia, which also included a host of other rare books.

Among the Valentine Rare Books collection was a first edition issue of The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, dated from 1719.

A rare first issue of classic Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, dated 1726, is also among the collection as is an original copy, dated 1811, of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility.

Even children’s books hero Harry Potter is figuring in the sale. Adrian Harrington Rare Books is selling first editions of the series about the young wizard and also an original watercolour from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Organisers said that sales of books can even take place after the overall event has finished, although the sale runs until Sunday at 5pm.

Sir Peter Stothard, the former editor of The Times newspaper for ten years and the present editor of the Times Literary Supplement, is patron of the fair.