Those who have been following my posts here for the last several years will recall that Ive been systematically researching published clerihews back to E.C. Bentleys Biography for Beginners in 1905. While I have discovered several early and undocumented books of clerihews by imitators of Bentley dating back to 1914 (so far), this afternoon I came across the earliest Clerihew Competition I have yet seen. In January of 1926 the Spectator (London) offered a prize of five pounds for the best addition to the classical examples of Biography for Beginners by Mr. E. C. Bentley- the Spectator wasnt calling them clerihews yet (Which is weird, because James Griffyth Fairfax certainly referred to his own 1914 collection as clerihews). Ill try and post some of the entries from that 1926 contest tomorrow. I will also submit that it is fairly clear to me that there is likely a considerable body of very early 20th century clerihews languishing in undocumented collections and un-indexed periodicals. Readers Guides to Periodical Literature tend not to return results before the mid 1950s, so my ongoing research is by the physical examination of every individual issue of every conceivable publication. If anyone is interested in a piece of this work as a research project (in the furtherance ultimately of an anthology for which you would be credited) Id be happy to assign you some of the mountain of material that still needs to be accessed and searched. All that is required is free time and access to a major university library :-) And if anyone lives in or near Gloucestershire, I have a special research job for you!
Posted on: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 04:32:04 +0000