Moses Tyson

Moses Tyson (born 1897, Westmorland; died 1969), historian and librarian, was keeper of western manuscripts at the John Rylands Library 1927-1935 and from 1935 to 1965 librarian of the Manchester University Library. His successor Frederick William Ratcliffe described him as "one of the great unsung figures of the University"; according to Brian Pullan, historian of the University, Dr Tyson was "a painfully shy bachelor who shunned the company of women" and "the self-effacing, misogynistic, chain-smoking Librarian".^[1] His friends included Sir William Watson the poet and H. B. Charlton, Professor of English Literature at the University of Manchester.

Works

• 1930 : Hand-List of the Collections of French and Italian Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library. Manchester: Manchester University Press (first published in Bulletin, vol. 14, pp. 563–609)
• 1932 : (with Henry Guppy) The French Journals of Mrs Thrale and Doctor Johnson edited from the original manuscripts in the John Rylands Library and in the British Museum. Manchester: Manchester University Press (Rylands English MSS. 617; BM Add. MSS. 35299)
• 1937 : The Manchester University Library. Manchester: University Press
• 1941 : "The First Forty Years of the John Rylands Library" in: Bulletin of the John Rylands Library; vol. 25, pp. 46–66
• Other contributions to the Bulletin were: "Hand-list of charters, deeds and similar documents, vol. II" (vols. 17, pp. 130–77, 348–82; 18, 393–454); "Hand-list of the collection of English manuscripts, 1928" (vol. 13, pp. 152–219); additions, 1928–35 (vol. 19, pp. 230–54, 458–85); "Hand-list of additions to the collections of Latin manuscripts, 1908–28" (vol. 12, pp. 581–609); "The Spanish manuscripts" (vol. 16, pp. 188–99); "Unpublished manuscripts, papers and letters of Dr Johnson, Mrs Thrale, and their friends [Eng. MSS. 530-660]" (vol. 15, 467–88); "A review and other writings by Charles Dickens [Eng. MS. 725]" (edited by Tyson; vol. 18, 177–96).

Footnotes

1. Pullan, Brian & Abendstern, Michele (2000) A History of the University of Manchester, 1951–73 ISBN 0-7190-5670-5; pp. 18, 92 Extracts

External links

• The papers of Moses Tyson in the University of Manchester Library