[ Hugh Chisholm; Encyclopaedia Britannica ] Autograph Letter Signed 'Hugh Chisholm' to [Stephen] Wheeler, editor of Landor's Letters etc., about his current work on the Encyclopaedia and the past.

Four pages, 12mo, bifolium, smallish hand, tightly written, good condition. "If I had been doing a complete new edition of the E.B. [Encyclopaedia Britannica] I should have certainly resorted to you in regard to Landor. But I am only doing some supplementary volumes, covering the later developments in 1910-1920, to add to those of the 11th Ed..; and I can't touch such things in themselves. I am even uncertain whether it is practicable to include [...] references to such new books on the older classics as ytour additions to knowledge about Landor, though I shall try to do this to some extent and then your Bibliography [underlined] should certainly be mentioned. But substantially I shall have all that I can manage in dealing with the war & so forth. | I have a sort of recollection that we had some conversation [...] about the biographical article on W.S.C. when I was doing the 11th Edition. But I was then more or less tied up by the fact that Swinburne was alive and that he was rather sensitive (I had frequent talks with him) about the retention of his contributions to the 9th Ed. It would have been rather a 'large order' to jettison him, especially in cases representing appreciations of men somewhat closely connected with him or with his special interests; and I was only able to 'dodge' some of the weaknesses of certain aspects of his articles by a little sub-editing to which he gave his assent. Such are the embarrassments occasionally incident [sic] to new editions,[...]. \ In previous editions of the E.B. the grossest example is noted in my Preface to the 11th edition about Sir Walter Scott's article Drama [underlined] (reprinted in 8th Ed. after being carried forward since the 4th, 'exactly as it proceeded from his own hand'); see E.B. 11th ed.i.p.xi, xii. The 'homage' previously paid in that form to Scott was overdone, but one is bound to pay it to some extent to an 'illustrious author" in such cases as Swinburne's E.B. articles, or Macaulays."