The husband of novelist Iris Murdoch plans to use money raised from the sale of her library to fund education and research at Oxford Uni- versity.
John Bayley, a former Warton Professor of English Literature at Oxford University, decided to sell the collection of 950 books to make more room in his north Oxford home.
The library, which includes extensive handwritten notes by Dame Iris, who died four years ago, covers subjects including religion, poetry, philosophy and psychology and is expected to fetch between £120,000 and £150,000. Likely buyers include the British Library and the Bodleian Library.
Prof Bayley said he wanted the proceeds from the sale to go towards scholarships at St Anne's College, where Dame Iris taught, and possibly towards funding a chair of geriatric medicine at the university. "Such a chair is in the offing," he said, "and all contributions are welcome."
The collection will be offered for sale by Rachel Lee Rare Books of Bristol at the Antiquarian Book Fair at Olympia, in West London next month.
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