Abbott, Claude Colleer, 1889-1971

Epithet: Professor of English Language and Literature, University of Durham

Claude Colleer Abbott (1889-1971) was Professor of English at the University of Durham 1932-1954, and earlier lectured at the University of Aberdeen. His most distinguished scholarly work was as an editor. His principal published works included his editions of The life and letters of George Darley (1928), The letters of Gerard Manley Hopkins to Robert Bridges (1935), The correspondence of Gerard Manley Hopkins and Richard Watson Dixon (1935), Further letters of Gerard Manley Hopkins including his correspondence with Coventry Patmore (1938, 2nd ed. 1956), and Poet and painter being the correspondence between Gordon Bottomley and Paul Nash, 1910-1946, with A. Bertram (1955). His Catalogue of papers relating to Boswell, Johnson and Sir William Forbes found at Fettercairn House (1936) lists the important collection of Boswell papers which he discovered at Fettercairn; he was bitterly disappointed to be deprived of the opportunity to edit these. From 1939 to 1952 he was editor of the Durham University Journal, and himself reviewed over a third of the books noticed in it over this period.

Abbott was also an accomplished minor poet, who published a number of collections of poems and verse translations; his Collected poems, 1918-1958 appeared in 1963. He was an active collector of 19th and 20th century British art as well as manuscripts and books, with an interest in the Pre-Raphaelites spanning all three fields. Whereas his collection of manuscripts and his papers came to the University of Durham, his library was bequeathed to the University of East Anglia and his art collection to Carlisle Art Gallery.