The correspondence was initiated by Morley Roberts, who wrote to Gilbert Murray after reading Murray's book The rise of the Greek epic (2nd edition), and shared with him his reflections on the etymology of the Greek word pharmakos, including his speculation about its possible relationship to the Turkish word vourmak. The total of 8 items in 1913 relate to the discussion of this etymology. Enclosed with Murray's letter of 6 September 1913 is a letter written to him by D. S. Margoliouth (dated 4 September 1913), in response to a query from Murray that appealed to Margoliouth's expertise in Turkish. For closely related correspondence from Max Montesole to Roberts in the same year, mainly concerning the Turkish word vourmak,see correspondence file for Montesole (Folder 101). The remaining correspondence between Roberts and Murray, dated 1916 to 1941, includes exchanges on a variety of topics, often related to what one or the other of them is writing. Murray reads and responds to many of Roberts's works, including Time and Thomas Waring, The private life of Henry Maitland; Warfare in the human body; The serpent's fang; and Women and ships. Letters in 1922 touch upon H. G. Wells (June) and W. H. Hudson (August). In November 1922 Murray refers to his support of Roberts's application for a civil list pension (for documents concerning that pension, see Folder 146). Regarding Roberts's artwork there is mention of a sketch of Oxford (July 1922) and his Exmoor pictures (December 1935).
