#ArchivesDay. Not finding what I'm looking for. A letter from the War Office dated 1930, correcting a matter of Great War history in a Thomas Nelson textbook, but nothing yet about music educational materials!

garfield is standing next to a refrigerator in a cartoon . ALT: garfield is standing next to a refrigerator in a cartoon .

#ArchivesDay and it's one of those days when one of the Great Truths of archival research is evident:
That which you seek may not be there!

it looks like a galaxy with a lot of stars and a blue background . ALT: it looks like a galaxy with a lot of stars and a blue background .

Minus 4! I thought it was a bit chilly ...
#ArchivesDay, but setting out later.

a boy with big eyes is standing on a field ALT: a boy with big eyes is standing on a field

#ArchivesDay and I can't think of a less appealing book title than 'The Unamiable Child'. I don't think #ThomasNelson offered the author a contract!
However, isn't that exactly what #HorridHenry was ... ?

#ArchivesDay. Classic mistake from a rookie author in 1932: they write ASKING THE PUBLISHER #ThomasNelson if they publish a particular genre. Someone evidently didn't do their research! Nelson's reply does not survive.

#ArchivesDay. My curiosity is piqued by a book proposal to #ThomasNelson for a collection of prayers. The editor doesn't think 'that we want any prayers, but will decide finally when [he sees] how Mr D. Had prayed!'
No, this is not actually the gentleman I'm trying to track down ...

a stuffed animal holding a box with the words no mail for you written on it ALT: a stuffed animal holding a box with the words no mail for you written on it

#ArchivesDay
In which I continue to seek correspondence about a book published 90 years ago ...
#ThomasNelson
#HuntTheAuthor

#ArchivesDay, and I'm not sure if this is a good or a bad start. Arrived before it started pouring. Muddled my diary (right day, wrong week). Find I've already seen all that was worth seeing in two boxes, and the third box is full of 'the editor regrets' letters to would-be authors. #DashedHopes

#ArchivesDay. Oh, this is fascinating. I'm witnessing #ThomasNelson's 1936 editorial plans for a coronation book for Edward VII. It's urgent. Letters flying from London to Scotland. Telegrams, too.
They don't know that he's about to abdicate, of course ...
#Coronation #Abdication

#ArchivesDay. One of our #ThomasNelson London editors is liaising with the Edinburgh office. Flattering the Scottish printers, he says an author 'has apparently had bitter experiences with other publishers and printers, but they were probably English!' A cunning move to get the printers on side.

#ArchivesDay continues. The unfortunate Miss H writes a letter on behalf of her boss at #ThomasNelson the publishers. She tells the recipient (a colleague) that her boss "seems to be getting agitated" ...
Said boss seems to have been a lovely gent, so I'm sure his agitation was very mild!

#ArchivesDay Dear me. One author is 'getting agitated', whilst a series editor is 'anxious', & 'teachers have been complaining'. Meanwhile, the editorial assistant's boss is 'desperately anxious' about one thing but only 'a little anxious' about another matter. Miss F must feel like an #AgonyAunt.

Old label complete with pin and ossified elastic band!

This is how #ArchivesDay is punctuated...

#ArchivesDay. This is fun. In 1934, a school in Newcastle was asking Nelson's for unbound books, for the boys' #bookbinding class. Nelsons seize the opportunity to supply the kind of books that the boys might actually read, once bound.
Strikes me as quite enlightened - both bookbinding & reading.

An apology. A lesson in unbridled #courtesy!
'I am more sorry than I can easily say to find myself obliged to make this hard decision. It was arrived at, I can assure you, only hafter the most earnest and heartsearching deliberation.'
#ArchivesDay

a girl holding an umbrella walking through a field of flowers ALT: a girl holding an umbrella walking through a field of flowers

Glorious, sunny #ArchivesDay in Edinburgh. I can imagine the #ThomasNelson editors sighing as they rejected this particular manuscript:- 'Wet Day Gardening'. Doesn't sound much fun!

Anyone writing a #BookProposal just now?
#ArchivesDay and I've just found a handwritten (yes!) book proposal in teeny, tiny spider-handwriting by a clergyman/osteopath (yup!), from 1953.
Unbelievably, #ThomasNelson's editors managed to decipher it and summarise what they were declining to publish!

#ArchivesDay - the editors at #ThomasNelson were bemused by a letter. Pencil note on a mysterious letter from New South Wales reads, 'Miss J, Can you make sense of this?'
And the attached reply?
'I am sorry that we cannot be of any help to you in this matter.'
It was a VERY weird letter!

#ArchivesDay and again, I'm sidetracked, this time by the agreeable topic of a book of Scottish verse published in 1952. One poet was reportedly, 'a particularly touchy individual, liable to feel [themself] persecuted ...'
There's always one!

#ArchivesDay - I'm not finding anything relevant. But here's a letter anyone would like to receive!
#ThomasNelson writes to a Swiss professor, 'Your letter [..] came as a shining light on a dark night. It gave me infinite pleasure [..] I am eager to see anything which you may have written.'😍

#ArchivesDay Still not finding what I'm looking for. But I do admire the economy of #ThomasNelson's 1954 title,
SOIL.

(Remind me to order more potting compost this evening ...!)

#ArchivesDay - haven't found what I'm looking for, but I'm intrigued by the deal struck between an Edinburgh car hire firm and publishers #ThomasNelson in 1954. Copies of a book on Scotland to be sold to this firm, with an 8-page advertising insert!
#Tourism

#ArchivesDay. Oof! It's 1954, and here I find forthright comments about an author:-

'... although [their] books are so good [they are] extremely unpopular'.
Bad enough? No.
'[their spouse] also makes [themself] a nuisance.'

#ArchivesDay. I FOUND a memo from the lady who briefly worked at #ThomasNelson in Edinburgh. She rescued a book and gave it to the library of the college where she formerly worked. It survives there to this day! @edunilibraries.bsky.social @strath-ioe.bsky.social
Suddenly today's a good day :)

Jobs for Girls and Boys in the 1950s Yes, I’m afraid I have been distracted in my archival search for the editor of some teaching materials.  I identified a run of box files for the right years, but it turns out not to be f…

#ArchivesDay. Hoping for more archival success than I found yesterday. Yes, I got distracted - there was almost no trace of Miss A.
karenmcaulaymusicologist.blog/2025/09/16/j...

Coffee cup on a stone table outside the University Library cafe

Lunch and conversation @iashedinburgh.bsky.social, now a coffee outside on a stone table @edunilibraries.bsky.social and back to #ArchivesDay.
I WILL find her, the illusive educational editor!

a man in a suit and tie is singing into a microphone and the words `` where are youu '' are written below him . ALT: a man in a suit and tie is singing into a microphone and the words `` where are youu '' are written below him .

#ArchivesDay is not going well. Much amusement - in 1953, ThomasNelson decided not to proceed with a 'Cowboy Annual', and rejected a cookbook because the reader 'seldom felt that an author was less qualified to tackle his subject'! - but no trace yet of the lady editor whom I'm pursuing!

a woman is sitting at a table looking at a piece of paper that says ' ll ' on it ALT: a woman is sitting at a table looking at a piece of paper that says ' ll ' on it

#ArchivesDay. Hoping to find correspondence from a particular Glaswegian #ThomasNelson editor. Will today be my lucky day?

#ArchivesDay. Relieved I am, to learn that #ThomasNelson rejected a reading scheme which the author called, 'Backward English Course'. I can hardly imagine a pupil or parent opening such a title with anything but horror! Even in 1953.

#ArchivesDay. A #ThomasNelson book rejection back in 1953 is a timely reminder to know one's audience:-
'not the scholarship to attract the historian nor the railway interest to attract the enthusiast ... How anybody outside Bedlam can hope to inflict dull, dry-as-dust prose on children ...'