Durning-Lawrence Library
This is the private collection of Sir Edwin Durning-Lawrence (1837-1914), protagonist in the Bacon-Shakespeare authorship controversy, who expressed his views at greatest length in his monograph Bacon is Shakespeare (1910), a work which attracted numerous reviews, mostly uncomplimentary, and three dissident pamphlets.
The library contains approximately 5,750 volumes. It is rich in early editions of works connected with Sir Francis Bacon: Bacon's own writings, and obvious Baconiana (works about or mentioning Bacon). Further strengths are early editions of Elizabethan and Jacobean literature generally (including all four Shakespeare folios), Jacobean and Caroline quarto plays, emblem books, early Bibles (including the Koberger Bible of 1477), seventeenth-century Rosicrucian books, and early editions of the works of Daniel Defoe. With the possible exception of the Defoe, Durning-Lawrence collected most of these for their perceived relevance to Bacon, explained in his writings. The library further contains a comprehensive collection of works concerning the Bacon-Shakespeare controversy, including American and German contributions to the debate. Senate House Library (SHL) has supplemented Durning-Lawrence's collection of these with more recent works. Durning-Lawrence's papers have been catalogued online as part of the archives catalogue.
The Durning-Lawrence Library is complemented by that of the Francis Bacon Society, on deposit at SHL. This contains some 1500 items, mainly works by and about Francis Bacon and other authors of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, especially Shakespeare. It too includes several works on the Baconian controversy
The Bacon-Shakespeare authorship controversy
Publications:
- Durning-Lawrence, Edwin, Bacon is Shakespeare (London: Gay and Hancock, 1910)
- Attar, K.E., 'Sir Edwin Durning-Lawrence: a Baconian and his Books,': The Library, 5th Ser., 3 (2004),294-315.
- 'English Renaissance Plays in Senate House Library', Research Opportunities in Renaissance Drama, 11 (1968), 65-72
shl.specialcollections@london.ac.uk 
020 7862 8470
