Description

Admin History:

Brenda Elizabeth Moon was born in North Staffordshire in 1931 and educated at KIng Edward's Grammar School for Girls, Camp Hill, Birmingham, and St. Hilda's College, Oxford, where she read Greats and graduated in 1953. She gained a postgraduate diploma in librarianship at University College London in 1955 and served as an Assistant Librarian in the University of Sheffield until 1962. She was appointed to the University Library at Hull as Sub Librarian (Cataloguing) from February 1962. Philip Larkin had been in post as University Librarian since 1955, with Arthur Wood as his Deputy. Miss Moon was promoted to a newly-created second post of Deputy Librarian from October 1967 and immediately took particular responsibility for equipping and the move into the new library building until 1970. She was Acting Librarian for six months during session 1970/71 whilst Larkin was on study leave at Oxford. The sudden death of Mr Wood in 1971 left her as sole Deputy, with a wide range of responsibilities and activities. Latterly she was involved in the selection of the GEAC automated library system, to which there are frequent references in this correspondence. Her major professional work, Periodicals for South-East Asia Studies (Mansell), was published in 1979. She resigned on 31 December 1979 having been appointed Librarian to the University of Edinburgh.

Description:

This collection consists of fifty seven items of correspondence from Philip Larkin to Brenda Moon, including Christmas cards, postcards, letters and notes. The correspondence covers the period in which Moon and Larkin worked together at Hull University, 1962-1979, and also contains letters updating Moon on library and personal matters after this date when Moon had moved to Scotland. In addition, the collection contains a library keepsake to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Brynmor Jones Library in 1979, on which is written a handwritten Larkin manuscript poem to Moon