Part 1: Acknowledgements
I should like to acknowledge and thank some individuals and institutions who have enabled the original research which this Walter Greenwood web/blog site draws on and adds to. Firstly, I would like to thank Anthony Cond of Liverpool University Press, who, in 2006, commissioned me to write the first book on Walter Greenwood’s famous work Love on the Dole. I had already published on the novel, once in an article in 1992 (one of my first publications), and again in a book chapter in 2006, so Anthony did not quite create my interest in Walter Greenwood, but he did create the opportunity for me to explore it to a much higher level (and generously and foresightedly published a book which, in the end, differed somewhat from his original plans). I remain very pleased with the support I received from Anthony and from Liverpool University Press and the beautifully designed book which resulted in 2018. See Home
I would also like to thank the Humanities Research Centre at Sheffield Hallam University and the colleagues within the Centre for in various ways supporting elements of my research over three decades. Then I would like to thank the University of Salford Library and Archives for enabling my frequent visits between 2006 and 2017 to the Walter Greenwood Collection, which they preserve, and especially the Archivist at the time, Ian Johnston (his successor, Alexandra Mitchell, continues to enable my continuing research on the life and writing of Greenwood). I would also like to thank colleagues in Sheffield Hallam University Library for much and varied assistance over the years, especially in locating and borrowing rare resources. Equally, I should acknowledge the excellence of a national treasure – the British Library National Newspaper Archive (see British Library Newspaper Archive). I use it frequently in my Greenwood research (and nearly all newspaper references derive from it), and would like here to say what a superb database it is: the (ever-growing) range of newspapers is wonderful, the annual subscription is superb value, and its search engine and filters are especially user-friendly and effective. I would like to acknowledge and thank two institutions who have have consistently helped the site to maintain high standards of visual accuracy and education: the National Portrait Gallery, London, and the Mary Evans Picture Library / Illustrated London News Ltd. Both have through a variety of licences made the use of key images of high quality possible. I would like finally to thank two community research groups for sustaining and adding to my interest in, enjoyment, and knowledge of popular fiction, culture, and social history in the first half of the twentieth century. These are The Reading 1900-1950 Reading Group (see https://reading19001950.wordpress.com/ ) and the Reading Sheffield Group (see https://www.readingsheffield.co.uk/).
Part 2: Referencing System
I was very clear from the beginning of the web/blog site that it should be aimed at any interested reader, but also maintain high standards of scholarship and good referencing, so that evidence could be traced and followed up according to interest or need. Everything published on the site seeks to achieve professional academic standards of originality, significance and rigour. To accommodate these intentions, I began in earlier articles by incorporating all references into brackets in the body of the text, usually with a link to online materials where possible. However, this sometimes led to a somewhat cluttered text, so I then moved towards giving quick online references in brackets in the text where possible, and providing end-notes for more complex references. This is not quite any of the standard Humanities referencing systems, but I hope it provides a reasonably good online reading-experience, with both good referencing, and as little interruption to the main material as possible. One feature on the site is not at all a standard Humanities referencing convention – and that is the way in which the Word-Press editor both indents quotations AND puts then in quotation marks. As I spent years telling my students, one never uses both an indent AND quotation marks. However, this what the Word-Press editor does as a default, and I have decided to live with it. I have tried wherever possible to provide an easily accessible source via a link, avoiding any material which is not open access (thus though I would like to link to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, that is not possible, though joining a public library does generally give access). For much film information, I often draw on IMDB (International Movie Database); for other topics, it is usually Wikipedia, which is readily accessible, but for most topics also generally reliable, if used with some discretion and an awareness that the completeness and accuracy of articles can vary.
Part 3: Copyright
The copyright holder for Greenwood’s works is stated to be Nicholas Evans of 6 Norwich House, Cordelia Street, London, E14 6AT UK, on the WATCH database of copyright holders hosted jointly by the University of Reading and the University of Texas Austin – see https://www.reading.ac.uk/library/about-us/projects/lib-watch.aspx and https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/watch/record_detail.cfm?contactid=2439&IndivID=&ArtistID=7343
In their correspondence with me, Random House Publishers (who publish the Vintage edition of Love on the Dole) have also named Nicholas Evans as the current copyright holder. However, my correspondence to the address given has been returned marked ‘unknown at this address’, and I have been unable so far to trace Nicholas Evans by advertising over a number of weeks in The Times and Times Literary Supplement in 2016. I believe Nicholas Evans to be or to have been Greenwood’s nephew; if he sees this, or if anyone has any further information about him, I would be very glad to hear from him or them. In the meantime, I will continue to use short quotations from Greenwood’s published works for purposes of criticism and review and practise fair dealing.
The right of Chris Hopkins to be identified as the author of this web/blog has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Quotations for the purposes of criticism and review are, of course, welcome, as is quotation by students, teachers and lecturers, using of course the referencing conventions recommended by their institutions.
- Best wishes, Chris Hopkins.
Walter Greenwood: Not Just Love on the Dole 