Arundell Esdaile was one of the most eminent British librarians of the first half of the twentieth century; he was also an influential bibliographer and literary scholar. All of his working life, from 1903 until his retirement in 1940, was spent in the British Museum. Much of Esdaile's reputation, however, was gained through his work outside the museum as a bibliographer and an active member of various learned societies and professional associations. He lectured in bibliography at the University of London and was the chief examiner for this subject for the Library Association, thereby helping to shape the pattern of education in this field and to nurture a generation of librarians with a solid basis of bibliographical knowledge. Esdaile also held the prestigious Sandars Readership in Bibliography at Cambridge, and he served as president of the Library Association during the difficult period between 1939 and 1945.

Arundell James Kennedy Esdaile was born...