William St Clair
Encyclopedia
William St Clair FBA, FRSL, is an academic and author. His research interests lie, in large part, in the history of books and reading, ancient Greece and biography. His work has contributed significantly to his fields of study. His Reading Nation in the Romantic Period notably, has received high praise, and has been reviewed in over fifty scholarly journals; it is frequently cited by other academics. He is a founding member of http://www.openbookpublishers.com/ http://www.openbookpublishers.com/, based in Cambridge (UK), and an active supporter of the Open Access movement.
The book centres on the Romantic
period in the English-speaking world, but ranges across the whole print era, to reach conclusions about the forces that determined how ideas were carried, through print, into wider society. It provides an investigation of information on prices, print runs, intellectual property
, and readerships gathered from over fifty publishing
and printing
archives.
An account of the philhellenes - or 'lovers of Greece' - who volunteered to fight for the Greek cause during the War of Independence
(1821), against the rule of the Ottoman Turks.
Essays on the nature of biography commissioned as part of the centenary celebrations of the British Academy. William St. Clair's essay is 'The Biographer as Archaeologist.'
As part of work in the Treasury, William St Clair authored:
1966. Transferred to Ministry of Defence. Secretary to the review of British defence arrangements at the end of empire. Visited military operations in Aden, South Arabia, Malaya, Borneo, and at sea. Visited virtually all British defence establishments at home and abroad.
1966-1969. First Secretary, Foreign Office, later Foreign and Commonwealth Office, on loan from Ministry of Defence. Desk officer for the Gibraltar dispute, later for East West trade and the strategic embargo. Served for a time in HM Embassy, Paris.
1969. Transferred to H.M Treasury. Appointments concerned with public expenditure and international finance. Short appointment in Brussels as part of the team preparing for British entry to EEC.
1974. Promoted Assistant Secretary. Appointed Head of Prices Division at the time of the inflationary surge, with responsibility for devising and operating the price and dividend controls associated with prices and incomes policy
.
1978. Head of Industrial Policy Division. Helped to devise and operate the Callaghan/Healey industrial policy aimed at reviving British competitiveness in manufacturing. Treasury member of Monopolies and Mergers Panel, and of several industrial National Economic Development Committees.
1979. Change of Government. Head of Overseas Aid Division.
1982. Head of Superannuation Division. Responsible for the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme and for Treasury supervision of the other public service pension schemes.
1985. Deputy Head of Cabinet Office/Treasury Joint Management Unit, charged with improving policy analysis and evaluation across government.
1985. Attended Top Management Programme for those entering the highest grades.
1988. Grade 4. In charge of the Treasury's consultancy forces, including inspectors, accountants, and operational researchers, and for deploying them across government
1990. Grade 3 Under-secretary with responsibility for Treasury control of the Civil Service.
1991-1998. Consultant to Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and European Union (EU). Assignments with British public bodies and overseas governments, advising mainly on strategic planning, resource allocation and budgeting, performance measurement, and evaluation.
Current positions
- Senior Research Fellow, Institute of English StudiesInstitute of English StudiesThe Institute of English Studies is a centre of excellence in the research, promotion and facilitation in the field English Literature and Language. With a specialisation in Book History, Palaeography and Textual Scholarship, the IES facilitates the advanced study and research of English Studies...
, School of Advanced StudySchool of Advanced StudyThe School of Advanced Study, a postgraduate institution of the University of London, is the UK's national centre for the promotion and facilitation of research in the humanities and social sciences...
, University of London (2005–). - Senior Research Fellow, Centre for History and Economics, Cambridge and Harvard (2008–).
- Chairman, Open Book Publishers. Academic publisher of peer-reviewed monographs in the humanities and social sciences. A Social Enterprise company that aims to make academic publishing fairer, swifter and more accessible, and ensures the widest possible distribution of its publications (2008–).
- Member of the Enterprise Management Committee, [Re enlightenment Project http:/ /www.reenlightenment.org/], main partners New York University, New York Public Library, and University of Cambridge (2008–).
Education
- Kilsyth Academy
- Comely Park SchoolComely Park SchoolComely Park School is a primary school in Woodlands, Falkirk, Scotland. It was founded in 1879 as a replacement for the local Charity School. In its early days it was also known as "Cochrane's Academy" after its first headmaster...
, Falkirk - Edinburgh AcademyEdinburgh AcademyThe Edinburgh Academy is an independent school which was opened in 1824. The original building, in Henderson Row on the northern fringe of the New Town of Edinburgh, Scotland, is now part of the Senior School...
- St John's College, OxfordSt John's College, Oxford__FORCETOC__St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, one of the larger Oxford colleges with approximately 390 undergraduates, 200 postgraduates and over 100 academic staff. It was founded by Sir Thomas White, a merchant, in 1555, whose heart is buried in the chapel of...
Academic positions
- Fellow of Royal Society of LiteratureRoyal Society of LiteratureThe Royal Society of Literature is the "senior literary organisation in Britain". It was founded in 1820 by George IV, in order to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". The Society's first president was Thomas Burgess, who later became the Bishop of Salisbury...
, 1973 - Visiting Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford, 1981–82
- Fellow of Huntington Library, California, 1985
- Fellow of British AcademyBritish AcademyThe British Academy is the United Kingdom's national body for the humanities and the social sciences. Its purpose is to inspire, recognise and support excellence in the humanities and social sciences, throughout the UK and internationally, and to champion their role and value.It receives an annual...
, 1992-, Member of Council 1996-2000 - Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford University, 1992-1996.
- Visiting Fellow Commoner, Trinity College, Cambridge University, 1998–99
- Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge University, 1999-2006
Main published works
- Relating to the history of books and reading
- The Reading Nation in the Romantic Period (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
The book centres on the Romantic
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
period in the English-speaking world, but ranges across the whole print era, to reach conclusions about the forces that determined how ideas were carried, through print, into wider society. It provides an investigation of information on prices, print runs, intellectual property
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
, and readerships gathered from over fifty publishing
Publishing
Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
and printing
Printing
Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing....
archives.
- The Political Economy of Reading, John Coffin Memorial Lecture in the History of the Book (University of London: School of Advanced Study, 2005).
- 'Publishing, Authorship, and Reading' in The Cambridge Companion to Fiction of the Romantic Period (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008).
- 'Following up The Reading Nation in The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, Volume VI, 1830-1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009).
- 'Metaphors of Intellectual Property' in Privilege and Property. Essays on the History of Copyright, eds. Lionel Bently, Ronan Deazley & Martin Kretschmer (Open Book, forthcoming 2010).
- A Gentleman of Literary Eminence': A Review Essay, with Roger Paulin & Elinor Shaffer (University of London: School of Advanced Study, 2008).
- Relating to the Parthenon and Elgin Marbles
- Lord Elgin and the Marbles (London: Oxford University Press, 1967; 3rd Revised Edition, 1998). Translated into Italian, French and Greek.
- 'The Elgin MarblesElgin MarblesThe Parthenon Marbles, forming a part of the collection known as the Elgin Marbles , are a collection of classical Greek marble sculptures , inscriptions and architectural members that originally were part of the Parthenon and other buildings on the Acropolis of Athens...
: Questions of Authenticity and Accountability', International Journal of Cultural Property, 2 (1999). - 'The Parthenon in 1687: New Sources' with Robert Picken, in The Parthenon and its Sculpture, ed. Michael Cosmopoulos (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
- 'Imperial Appropriations of the Parthenon', in Imperialism, Art and Restitution, ed. John Henry Merryman (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006). Chinese translation published by Tongji University Press, 2009.
- History and biography
- That Greece Might Still Be Free. The Philhellenes in the War of Independence (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1972). Awarded Heinemann prize by Royal Society of Literature. New edition with additional material, extra illustrations, an updated bibliography, and a New Introduction by Roderick Beaton (Open Book, 2008).
An account of the philhellenes - or 'lovers of Greece' - who volunteered to fight for the Greek cause during the War of Independence
Greek War of Independence
The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution was a successful war of independence waged by the Greek revolutionaries between...
(1821), against the rule of the Ottoman Turks.
- Adventures of a Younger Son by Edward John Trelawny, with an Introduction by William St. Clair (London: Oxford University Press,1974).
- Trelawny, the Incurable Romancer (London: J. Murray, 1977).
- The Godwins and the Shelleys, The Biography of a Family (London: Faber and Faber and New York: Norton, 1989). Awarded Time-Life prize and Macmillan Silver Pen for an outstanding work of British non-fiction.
- Mapping Lives: The Uses of Biography, eds. Peter France & William St Clair (Oxford: Oxford University Press for the British Academy 2002).
Essays on the nature of biography commissioned as part of the centenary celebrations of the British Academy. William St. Clair's essay is 'The Biographer as Archaeologist.'
- The Grand Slave Emporium: Cape Coast Castle and the British Slave Trade (London: Profile, 2006). Published in the U.S. as The Door of No Return, The History of Cape Coast Castle and the Transatlantic Slave Trade (New York, N.Y.: Bluebridge, 2007). Based on a huge archive of original documents previously scarcely explored.
- Conduct literature
- Conduct Literature for Women, 1500-1640, eds. William St Clair & Irmgard Maassen (6 Volumes) (London: Pickering and Chatto, 2000).
- Conduct Literature for Women, 1640-1710, eds. William St Clair & Irmgard Maassen (6 Volumes) (London: Pickering and Chatto, 2002).
- Evaluation
As part of work in the Treasury, William St Clair authored:
- Policy Evaluation: A Guide for Managers (HMSO, 1988). Translated, with adaptations, into several languages including, French, Arabic and Turkish.
- Executive Agencies: A Guide to Setting Targets and Judging Performance (HMSO, 1992).
- Family letters
- The Road to St. Julien The Letters of a Stretcher-Bearer from The Great War by William St. Clair, ed. John St Clair (Barnsley: Pen & Sword Books, 2004). William St Clair was William St Clair's uncle.
Career in the British Civil Service
1960. Joined Admiralty. Spent time at sea in many types of vessel. Private Secretary to successive Civil Lords of the Admiralty in Conservative and the Labour Governments.1966. Transferred to Ministry of Defence. Secretary to the review of British defence arrangements at the end of empire. Visited military operations in Aden, South Arabia, Malaya, Borneo, and at sea. Visited virtually all British defence establishments at home and abroad.
1966-1969. First Secretary, Foreign Office, later Foreign and Commonwealth Office, on loan from Ministry of Defence. Desk officer for the Gibraltar dispute, later for East West trade and the strategic embargo. Served for a time in HM Embassy, Paris.
1969. Transferred to H.M Treasury. Appointments concerned with public expenditure and international finance. Short appointment in Brussels as part of the team preparing for British entry to EEC.
1974. Promoted Assistant Secretary. Appointed Head of Prices Division at the time of the inflationary surge, with responsibility for devising and operating the price and dividend controls associated with prices and incomes policy
Incomes policy
Incomes policies in economics are economy-wide wage and price controls, most commonly instituted as a response to inflation, and usually below market level.Incomes policies have often been resorted to during wartime...
.
1978. Head of Industrial Policy Division. Helped to devise and operate the Callaghan/Healey industrial policy aimed at reviving British competitiveness in manufacturing. Treasury member of Monopolies and Mergers Panel, and of several industrial National Economic Development Committees.
1979. Change of Government. Head of Overseas Aid Division.
1982. Head of Superannuation Division. Responsible for the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme and for Treasury supervision of the other public service pension schemes.
1985. Deputy Head of Cabinet Office/Treasury Joint Management Unit, charged with improving policy analysis and evaluation across government.
1985. Attended Top Management Programme for those entering the highest grades.
1988. Grade 4. In charge of the Treasury's consultancy forces, including inspectors, accountants, and operational researchers, and for deploying them across government
1990. Grade 3 Under-secretary with responsibility for Treasury control of the Civil Service.
1991-1998. Consultant to Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and European Union (EU). Assignments with British public bodies and overseas governments, advising mainly on strategic planning, resource allocation and budgeting, performance measurement, and evaluation.