A large collection of unpublished material, mostly typewritten, towards a thesis entitled 'William Hazlitt, A Study of his Character & Works'. With a large collection of newspaper and magazine extracts and other printed matter relating to Hazlitt.

A specialist on Dickens and Tennyson, Cuming Walters was for many years a central figure in the literary life of the north-west of England. Shortly before his death (and as reported in The Times, 28 April 1932) he boasted of having written 'between 15,000 and 20,000 leading articles, nearly 20,000 reviews of books, 8,000 dramatic notices, and 15,000 special articles. He had published about 20 books and had written 250 lectures.' The present collection is divided into two parts. A. The THESIS is accompanied by an Autograph Letter Signed (12mo, 2 pages) to Walters from the textual scholar and literary critic C. H. Herford (1853-1931), dated from Didsbury on 2 October 1914, which reveals the seriousness with which Walters approached his researches. Herford praises the 'very heroic' fashion in which Waters, 'under the present exacting circumstances', is pursuing his 'work at Hazlitt, & even - editor of a journal tho' you are - to "be able to think of nothing else"!' In a manuscript draft (12mo, 2 pages) of what appears to be a letter addressed to the Senate of Manchester University, Walters sets out his aims. His thesis, 'William Hazlitt, a Study of his Character & Works' is the product of 'three years' research'. He has 'read & annotated the whole of [Hazlitt's] writings', has 'carefully examined many volumes relating to him', and has 'personally visited the chief localities connected with his life'. 'The scheme I have projected has become so large & will involve so much further research that I am not able to submit it in complete form at present.' His work is 'not essentially biographical', the aim being to present Hazlitt's 'Autobiography as discoverable in his writings' and 'an original study of the phases of his work & of his personal character'. The thesis, mainly comprising several hundred A4 leaves, is on browning high-acidity paper, with chipping and fraying to extremities, but with fewer than a dozen leaves with damage or loss to text. Included is a three-page 'complete plan of the work', with a synopsis of each of the eighteen chapters, ranging from 'The Human Enigma' ('A preliminary sketch of Hazlitt and his characteristics, showing his curious and complex personality, the difficulties experienced in understanding him, and the need to study him by means of his autobiographical revelations and confessions.') to 'His Memory' ('Tributes and anecdotes; a full examination of his characteristics; the meaning of his words "A Happy Life"; his place in literature, and a final estimate of Hazlitt as a man'). Also, a list (12mo, 2 pages) of fourteen appendices. The thesis itself is a carbon typescript corrected in manuscript, with addenda and cuttings on attached slips, having each page arranged in double-spaced lines on one side only of each leaf. The order of pages and sections has been seriously disturbed, and would take a considerable effort to rearrange, leaving uncertain its completeness. Five chapters (4, 'The Moulding of the Man'; 7, 'His First Literary Work'; 12, 'Winterslow'; 16, 'The Buonopartist'; and 17, 'Last Years and Last Works') survive in order, with the pages of each attached to one another, and totaling in excess of 200 pages, exclusive of the numerous addenda on slips. An envelope contains around 100 12mo pages of manuscript notes and drafts towards a chapter on the 'Liber Amoris', and another envelope a similar number of pages on Hazlitt and Napoleon. In addition around 300 typewritten pages are pinned in seventeen incomplete sections. There are also approximately 200 loose pages of typescript, comprising jumbled sequences from various chapters. Also present are around 100 12mo pages of typescript, containing quotations and notes, and more than 150 pages (mainly 12mo) of manuscript notes and drafts. B. THE PRINTED MATTER consists of around 50 newspaper cuttings and extracts, including the articles 'Thomas Paine, and the Republic of the World' by Moncure D. Conway; 'Hazlitt's "Liber Amoris" ' ascribed to J. Ashcroft Noble; another on the same subject from the Gentleman's Magazine, February 1869; another by P. P. Howe on the same subject (Fortnightly Review, February 1916); an anonymous review of the 'Literary Remains' (Edinburgh Review, 1864); John Mortimer, 'Concerning Table-Talk and some Table-Talkers' and 'Some Aspects of Leigh Hunt'.