Craig Collection

Craig was interested in sexual behaviour and education and the reform of legislation governing sexual behaviour, and in the reform of literary and artistic censorship.The collection consists mainly of early to mid-twentieth-century books on sexual customs and practices, with some works of literary and artistic erotica. It includes many items which were banned or censored.

There are particularly strong holdings of the works of De Sade, including deluxe editions from publisher Maurice Heine accompanied by inscriptions and letters to Craig from Heine. The Collection further includes several volumes from the Library of the British Sexological Society, of which Craig was nominally librarian, and inscriptions from Havelock Ellis, Chester Himes and Eric Gill amongst others.

There are seven works from the eighteenth century and ten volumes published by the Fortune Press, some of which were the subject of criminal proceedings. Approximately half the volumes are in French. One-tenth of the collection is in German, mostly of seemingly technical and theoretical volumes which are more properly regarded as disguised erotica.

Craig purchased many of the books from the estate of Dr Pelham Horton Box in 1937 and 1939. His entire library passed to Camden Council, and most books were sold without being recorded. In 1974 the Council, nervous of the sexual content, contacted the University of London to review the remainder, and Craig’s widow agreed to donate it as material which ‘because of its rarity and subject matter would have to be used in the controlled academic library situation’.

• The Banned Books of England (1937) (Search Library catalogue)