Item 1984/1 - Letter from John Brand to Hugh Pagan

1 item, paper

Copy of a letter from John Brand to Hugh Pagan, typescript, two pages on two folios (recto only), dated 19 October 1984, providing "this precis of the position which has evolved" regarding the printing of JDB's Presidential Address to the BNS at its 1982 Anniversary Meeting. JDB explains his view the sequence of events and rationale that led to an editorial decision not to print his Presidential Address in the BNJ. The address dealt with two interrelated issues: (1) allegations of "academic direputability [sic] and intellectual corruption" against the BNS, and (2) "a review of the theory of regular periodic renovation of the coinage in the late Anglo-Saxon and Norman periods". The address was originally intended for publication in BNJ 52, but the death of Michael Dolley in 1983 precluded this because the BNS Council decided to devote the volume to him and JDB agreed to defer publication of his address to BNJ 53. Ultimately, however, the decision was taken not to publish the address because the accusations of academic disrepute and intellectual corruption against which it defended the BNS derived from Michael Dolley, who also championed the theory of periodic renovation of the coinage. According to JDB, it was Stewart Lyon's influence that led to the suppression of the address, based on Lyon's view that the address was overly polemical, but JDB regarded it as his duty as President to defend the Society vigorously against the accusations.