Antiquarian News

Third female Detective – Republished

This week the British Library is to publish Mr Bazalgette’s Agent, a rare title first published in 1888 and only the third British crime fiction work to feature a professional female detective as its protagonist. 

Mr Bazalgette’s Agent was written by English novelist Leonard Merrick (1864-1939), who said of the book: “It's a terrible book. It’s the worst thing I ever wrote. I bought them all up and destroyed them. You can’t find any.”

 Copies of the book can now only be found in private collections and in a handful of university and national libraries throughout the world. Merrick went on to become a prolific novelist, admired by such contemporaries as H. G. Wells, J. M. Barrie, G.K. Chesterton and Virginia Woolf, but he never wrote another detective story.

The novel follows the international exploits of Miriam Lea, a determined and resourceful young heroine who grapples with some very modern dilemmas of female virtue and vice. This new edition will make the story widely available for the first time, offering modern crime fiction fans an opportunity to discover this enticing and rare detective novel.

Mike Ashley, author and bibliographer, wrote the introduction to the book and says: “When in 1888 Leonard Merrick detailed the adventures of the unemployed twenty-eight-year-old Miriam Lea, he was embarking upon the first full-length novel about a female detective. Mr Bazalgette’s Agent, which has been virtually unknown for over a century, is well worth reviving and should proudly claim the honour of being the first British detective novel to feature a professional female detective.”

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Partnership University and Newspaper

Columbia University has entered a partnership with New York City's Spanish-language newspaper El Diario/La Prensa to house its photographic archive.

The school says the 5,000 images will be housed in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library. They'll be part of the Latino Arts and Activism Collection. The archive documents the lives, contributions and culture of Latinos in New York City.

El Diario is the oldest continuously publishing Spanish-language daily newspaper in the country. Columbia and the newspaper plan four exhibitions around the city as part of the paper's centennial celebration this year. Each venue will feature a selection of photographic reproductions, newspaper articles and front pages. They'll be thematically arranged to highlight the city’s Latino social, cultural, economic and political growth.

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National Library of Scotland

The NLS have marked the 500th anniversary of the Battle of Flodden and celebrated the contribution of James IV to printing in Scotland by displaying the first known books to be printed in this country.

James IV, who died in the battle, has been acclaimed by historians as the king whose reign brought the Renaissance to Scotland. The introduction of printing through the patent he granted to merchant Walter Chepman and bookseller Androw Myllar was part of his patronage of the arts and sciences. The first books they published in 1508 are among the Library's most precious in the collection.

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