Eugene LeMire

Eugene LeMire was a distinguished academic in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Flinders University for over 20 years. Whilst there, he embarked on one of the largest and most significant projects of his career, compiling A bibliography of William Morris. (Oak Knoll Press and The British Library, 2006).  

LeMire spent more than 15 years researching for the Bibliography, drawing from some 52 libraries and 7 private collections across Australia, North America, and Europe.  It documents Morris’ published poetry, prose, lectures, political pamphlets and social commentary.  At 386 pages, it is today considered the definitive resource for collectors and scholars alike, being the first full account in over 100 years of Morris’ extensive writings.

Eugene's children gifted all of the material their father had accumulated during this research to University of Adelaide Library via the Australian Cultural Gifts Program in 2016. The collection consists of two parts:

• The William Morris Collection which includes 145 works written and/or published by William Morris, 2018 secondary and reference books about Morris, ephemeral publications of societies focusing on Morris and copies of research materials and a copy of LeMire's 1962 PhD thesis (The unpublished lectures of William Morris). Two original Kelmscott Press publications are in the collection - Gothic architecture: a lecutre for the Arts and Crafts Exhibition, 1893 and The tale of the Emperor Coustans and of Over Sea, 1894.

• The [Papers - Eugene LeMire (series MSS 0246)] held in the Adelaide University's Manuscript and Personal Archive Collection and consisting of 15 boxes of research material Eugene LeMire collected for A bibliography of William Morris. This material includes information from trade journals, correspondence, printers' or publishers' archives and financial accounts, newspapers, diaries, histories, and bibliographies relating to publication.