University of Chicago Library

Guide to the Sir Percy William Bunting Papers 1882-1911

Acknowledgments

Descriptive Summary

Title:	Bunting, Sir Percy William. Papers
Dates:	1882-1911
Size:	3 linear feet (6 boxes)
Repository:	Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center University of Chicago Library 1100 East 57th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637 U.S.A.
Abstract:	Sir Percy W. Bunting (1836-1911), social reformer, editor. The Percy W. Bunting Papers consist of letter received by Bunting when he was editor of the Contemporary Review. Many of the letters are from prominent writers of the later Victorian literary and political scene, such as Lord Acton, Matthew Arnold, J. M. Barrie, Rupert Brooke, Robert Browning, Andrew Carnegie, G. K. Chesterton, Winston Churchill, Clemenceau, Wilkie Collins, Austin Dobsch, James A. Froude, Gladstone, Benjamin Harrison, Bret Harte, Henry James, James Russell Lowell, Sir John Lubbock, Maeterlinck, Cardinal Manning, George Meredith, Cardinal Newman, Florence Nightingale, Walter Pater, Theodore Roosevelt, George Bernard Shaw, Herbert Spencer, Robert Louis Stevenson, John A. Symonds. The letters cover the entire span of Sir Percy's editorial years on the Review, from 1882 to 1911.

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Citation

When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Bunting, Sir Percy William. Papers, [Box #, Folder #], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

Biographical Note

Sir Percy W. Bunting (1836-1911) was a social reformer and editor of the Contemporary Review. He was the only son of Thomas Percival Bunting, a solicitor in Manchester. Educated at home until 1851 when he became one of the original students of Owens College, graduating as an associate in 1859. He obtained a scholarship at Pembroke College, Cambridge, graduating as B.A. in 1859. He began to practice law in 1862 at Lincoln's Inn where he acquired a large practice, from which he finally retired in 1895.

From an early age he was devoted to social reform, political liberalism, and the welfare of modern Methodism. He was very active in promoting organization of non-conformity as a national religious force. The promotion of moral purity was the social reform which engaged much of his adult energy. He visited the Continent several times in this cause, becoming an apt French and a good German scholar as a result.

In politics Bunting was a zealous liberal and admirer of Gladstone. He served on the executive committee of The National Liberal Foundation from 1880 until his death, and in 1892 he was elected to Parliament from East Islington as a Gladstone liberal.

In 1882, Bunting became editor of the Contemporary Review, founded by Alexander Strahan in 1862. Bunting remained editor until his death, conducting the Review on liberal lines. He enlisted the services of foreign contributors with whom his travels had brought him in contact, and he encouraged all writers, well known or not, who could present phases of contemporary theology, science, art, literature, and politics. He maintained a moderately advanced religious tone, and gave topics of social reform a prominent place. A firm believer in international amity, Bunting was active in the formation of the Anglo-German Friendship Society in 1911.

After he was knighted in 1908 his physical powers began to fail slowly, and he died on July 22, 1911.

Scope Note

The letters in the collection consist of those by correspondents to Sir Percy when he was editor of the Contemporary Review. Most of them are simply statements declining, for several reasons, an invitation to write for the Review. The letters from each correspondent vary in number from one by several minor figures to as many as thirty-nine by Herbert Spencer, for example. A great number of the letters are from very prominent writers of the later Victorian literary and political scene, such as Lord Acton, Matthew Arnold, J. M. Barrie, Rupert Brooke, Robert Browning, Andrew Carnegie, G. K. Chesterton, Winston Churchill, Clemenceau, Wilkie Collins, Austin Dobsch, James A. Froude, Gladstone, Benjamin Harrison, Bret Harte, Henry James, James Russell Lowell, Sir John Lubbock, Maeterlinck, Cardinal Manning, George Meredith, Cardinal Newman, Florence Nightingale, Walter Pater, Theodore Roosevelt, George Bernard Shaw, Herbert Spencer, Robert Louis Stevenson, John A. Symonds, and many others who for one reason or another Sir Percy considered worthy of appearing in the Contemporary Review. The letters cover the entire span of Sir Percy's editorial years on the Review, from 1882 to 1911.

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Subject Headings

Acton, John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, Baron, 1834-1902
Bunting, Percy William, Sir, b. 1836
Barrie, J. M. (James Matthew), 1860-1937
Carnegie, Andrew, 1835-1919
Churchill, Randolph Henry Spencer, Lord, 1849-1895
Collins, Wilkie, 1824-1889
Gladstone, W. E. (William Ewart), 1809-1898
James, William, 1842-1910
Lowell, James Russell, 1819-1891
Nightingale, Florence, 1820-1910
Shaw, Bernard, 1856-1950

INVENTORY

Box 1 Folder 1

Correspondence, Abbott-Acland