Ashley MS 2393

Curriculum Vitae of himself, by George Borrow; between 1862 and 1874. Autograph fair copy, with a few revisions, written on both sides of two conjoined quarto leaves of white laid paper, with a revised passage on a further scrap of the same. No watermark. C. K. Shorter, George Borrow and his Circle, 1913, p. 3 (where a text identical with this MS. is printed) states that Borrow was asked in 1870 for a biography by the editor of Men of the Time. The account of Borrow given in that work, however, virtually does not change between the editions of 1865 and 1872, although that of 1865 is much fuller than that of 1862. None of these accounts is identical with this MS. Shorter, op. cit., p. 4, also prints a fuller biography, which, despite a few variants, is apparently also printed in W. I. Knapp, Life, Writings and Correspondence of George Borrow, vol. II, 1899, pp. 208-211, where mention is made of another, autograph, account, which from the variants cited appears possibly to be the same text as Ashley 2393. Knapp, however, states that the biography was drawn up at the request of John Longe, editor of an English version of Burton's Antiquities of the Royal School of Norwich, and prints two letters from Longe to Borrow dated 7 and 15 Oct. 1862. The only internal evidence for the dating of the MS. is the statement that Wild Wales was Borrow's latest publication (the BM copyright deposit copy was received on 22 Nov. 1862). His next publication was Romano Lavo-Lil in 1874. Another MS. biography, not autograph, is found in Add. MS. 28,509, ff. 179-182, a collection of materials for the Dictionary of Contemporary Biography, 1861, edited by Charles Griffin. This account is much fuller than the version finally printed. Ashley Library Catalogue, ix, p. 18.

Quarto; ff. i+3.

George Borrow, writer: Curriculum Vitae of himself by George Borrow: 1862-1874: Autogr. fair copy.