Title: Arthur W. Secord Papers, 1920-57

Series Number: 15/7/28

Acquired: 7/14/1980; 2/18/94; CIWS

Volume: 2.0 cubic feet

Arrangement

Creator(s)

Biographical Note

Arthur Wellesley Secord (1891-1957) was assistant (1921-22); instructor (1923-25); associate (1925-26); assistant professor (1926-36); associate professor (1936-45); and professor (1945-1957) of English at the University of Illinois (UI). He was widely respected as a leading English scholar on the works of Daniel Defoe (1660-1731).

Secord was born in Emporia, Kansas, on November 7, 1891. He earned a bachelor's degree from Greenville College in Illinois (1916) and served in the US Infantry (1917-18) during WWI. Following the war, he earned a master's degree (1920) and a Ph.D. (1923) from UI and joined the English faculty there in 1921. Secord is primarily known for his scholarship on Defoe, including his 1924 book, Studies in the Narrative Method of Defoe, based on his dissertation, as well as Daniel Defoe: A Journal of the Plague Year and Other Pieces (editor, 1935). Additional written works include "Our Indispensable Eighteenth Century" (1946) and "I. M. of the First Folio Shakespeare and Other Mabbe Problems" (1948) as well as Robert Drury's Journal and Other Studies, which was published posthumously in 1961. Secord was awarded the 1927-28 Guggenheim Memorial fellowship, and, in 1956, he was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature of Great Britain.

Secord married Minta Irene Tenney on September 8, 1920, and together they had a son and two daughters. He died of a heart attack that occurred on the UI campus on May 16, 1957.

Sources:

"Arthur Wellesley Secord," accessed June 3, 2020, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/139686779/arthur-wellesley-secord.

"Arthur W. Secord," Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, accessed June 3, 2020, https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/arthur-w-secord/.

"A. W. Secord Dies After Heart Attack," Daily Illini, 17 May 1957, accessed June 3, 2020, https://idnc.library.illinois.edu/?a=d&d=DIL19570517.2.25&srpos=4&e=-------en-20-DIL-1--img-txIN-Secord--------.

"Secord Services Set for Monday," Daily Illini, 18 May 1957, accessed June 3, 2020, https://idnc.library.illinois.edu/?a=d&d=DIL19570518.2.18&srpos=3&e=-------en-20-DIL-1--img-txIN-A.+W.+Secord--------.

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Locations for this record series:

146 Library, 1408 W. Gregory Drive (Prior Request Preferred)

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Description: Papers of Arthur Wellesley Secord (1891-1957), Professor of English (1926-57) including "Defoe in Stoke Newington;" an untitled manuscript anthology of 18th century prose writers (1950); page proofs and manuscript of bibliographical notes and introduction to a facsimile publication of Defoe's The Review (1938); Ph.D. thesis "Studies in the Narrative Method of Defoe" (1923-24); typescript outlines and chapters of "Moll Flanders and the Picaresque Novel," "The Fortunate Mistress" and "Roxana;" lecture notes on English Literature of the 16th to 19th centuries (1926-57); clippings from the Times Literary Supplement (1950, 1954); correspondence (195--55); Champaign County and Central Illinois Cameral Clubs' membership lists, newsletters and contest rules (1948-57); manuscripts and notes for essays in Robert Drury's Journal and Other Studies (1961) including unpublished articles on "Benjamin Norton Defoe" and "Defoe and the Melfort Memories." A copy of this publication is in R.S. 38/1/0/15. The series includes a minute book, membership records and treasurer's report of "The Questers" (1946-50), a discussion group which included campus clergy and faculty. Professor Secord was the last secretary.

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