Henry B. Wheatley Explained

Henry Benjamin Wheatley FSA (1838  - 30 April 1917) was a British author, editor, and indexer. His London Past and Present was described as his most important work and "the standard dictionary of London."^[1]

Life

He was a posthumous son of Benjamin Wheatley, an auctioneer, and his wife Madalina; the bibliographer Benjamin Robert Wheatley was his brother, and passed on expertise.^[2]

Wheatley was Assistant Secretary to Royal Society of Arts, 1879 - 1909; founding member (1903) and President of the Samuel Pepys Club, 1903 - 10; Vice-President of the Bibliographical Society, 1908 - 10, and its President 1911 - 13.^[3] In 1909 he was the President of the Sette of Odd Volumes, an English bibliophile dining-club.^{[4] [5]}

He is buried in a family grave on the eastern side of Highgate Cemetery.

Works

Articles

• Folk-Lore Terminology. Folk-Lore Journal. 2. 1884. 340–347. 10.1080/17442524.1884.10602756. Gomme. G. L..
• Celebrated Birthplaces: Samuel Johnson at Lichfield. The Antiquary. December 1884. 233–239.
• Post-Restoration Quartos of Shakespeare's Plays. The Library. Third Series. July 1913. 4. 15. 237–269.

Books

• Of Anagrams: A Monograph Treating of Their History from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time. Williams & Norgate, 1862.
• "Round about Piccadilly and Pall Mall, or, A ramble from Haymarket to Hyde Park, 1870
• What is an Index?, 1878
• Samuel Pepys and the World He Lived In, 1880, 1st edition; online text, 5th edition, 1907 from hathitrust.org
• The Bibliographer, 1884.
• How to Form a Library, 1887
• The Dedication of Books to Patron and Friend, 1887
• How to Catalogue a Library. Published by Eliot Stock 1889.
• Remarkable bindings in the British Museum, 1889
• London Past and Present: Its History, Associations, and Traditions. John Murray, 1891.
• Reliques of Old London, George Bell & Sons, 1896. (descriptions of buildings with lithographs by Thomas Robert Way)
• How to Make an Index, 1902.
• The Story of London, [Mediæval Towns Series] 1904^[6]
• Literary Blunders, 1905

As editor

• , 1865; 2nd edition, 1870
• Editor, Books in Chains by William Blades (includes Wheatley's introduction and brief bio of Blades, whom he knew), 1892

Notes and References

1. http://www.topsoc.org/uploads/documents/marks.pdf "The London Topographical Society: A brief account"
2. 38397. Wheatley, Henry Benjamin. J. D.. Lee.
3. Web site: The Bibliographical Society -- Past Presidents . 2012-08-17 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20090804010233/http://www.bibsoc.org.uk/presidents.htm . 2009-08-04 .
4. http://www.theindexer.org/files/23-2/23-2_086.pdf "The father of British indexing: Henry Benjamin Wheatley" by J. D. Lee
5. Wheatley, Henry Benjamin. Who's Who . 1912. 2259.
6. Review: The Story of London by Henry B. Wheatley. The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art. 98. 17 September 1904. 369.