Wise work
Sir: Mr Wheatcroft in his review (31 December) of the new edition of the Carter and Pollard Enquiry fails to mention the invaluable contribution of Fanny Ratchford (then Librarian of the Wrenn Rare Books Library at Austin) in being the first to use an advanced American process to expose the name of H. Buxton Froman which had been heavily crossed out in a Wise letter. This was published in the Times Literary Supplement which then devoted its back page to learned articles.
I had the pleasure of meeting Miss Ratchford in Austin when she had retired, after some difficulty as the Faculty members and librarians played a game of The Lady Vanishes in putting me off, suggesting she was either away or in a mental home or even dead. But at luncheon with a chairman of the English-Speaking Union when I expressed my disappointment she said it was all nonsense as she knew her well and would arrange a meeting the next day. Miss Ratchford gave me several of her articles. She would have died happy if she could have proved the involvement of Edmund Gosse in the forgeries.
I also met T. J. Wise thanks to the efforts of a friend at the Oxford Press, but it was not a happy occasion as Sir John Shelley- Rolls had presented me with a copy of the Enquiry a week before. Both sides of the tea table were therefore ill at ease and I did not get to see his Shelley material. Wise was unpleasant-looking with a balloon-like head but it was amazing to think that the very ordinary villa in Hampstead housed his treasures.
Lady Mander
Flat 11, 35 Buckingham Gate, London SWI
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