Series CAS/10 - Correspondence

George Michael Wickens was a distinguished Canadian-British Persianist as well as Arabist, translator and a University lecturer. Wickens was born in London, England and attended Trinity College, Cambridge, where he received his BA in 1939 and MA in 1946, respectively. During the Second World War, he served with the Royal Army Pay Corp from 1939 to 1941 and the Intelligence Corps from 1941 to 1946, rising to the rank of captain. Following his wartime service, most of which was spent in Iran, Wickens resumed academic life, teaching at the University of London for three years before accepting an invitation to return to Cambridge. He taught there until 1957 when he was offered an associate professorship at University of Toronto. He became a full professor in 1960 and founding chair of the Department of Islamic Studies (predecessor to today’s Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations) in 1961. A prolific and distinguished humanities scholar, Wickens was the author of 'Avicenna: Scientist and Philosopher' (1952) and he translated several masterpieces of Persian literature such as Boostan of Sa'di into English. Wickens died in Toronto, Ontario in 2006 from a stroke

James Douglas Pearson was a British librarian and bibliographer in the field of Islamic studies who founded the Index Islamicus. He grew up in Cambridge, where he was also educated. His first job was as a book fetcher in the Cambridge University Library at the age of 16. He was awarded a scholarship for Hebrew at St John's College. graduating in 1936, and studied other languages such as Arabic and Persian. He worked in the Oriental Section of the Library until 1941 when he was enlisted for war service until 1945. He worked again in the same library as an assistant under-librarian from 1945 until 1950. During 1950, he was appointed as librarian of the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. In 1972, Pearson was appointed as senior fellow and professor of bibliography in the University of London. He retired during 1979 and returned to Cambridge, to work on the Index Islamicus. In 1982, he retired from editorship, and handed responsibility of the Index Islamicus to Cambridge University.

In 1967, Pearson established the Middle East Libraries Committee, now known as MELCOM UK. This gave birth to a large series of bibliographies and research tools.

Henry Guppy CBE was Librarian of the John Rylands Library in Manchester from 1899 until his death in 1948. He was created Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1937. He was active in the Library Association of Great Britain and among his notable achievements are contributions to the reconstruction of the university library of Louvain between the World Wars and the founding of the Bulletin of the John Rylands Library in 1903. During much of his tenure in Manchester he resided at Buxton, where he died. He was survived by his wife Matilda, with whom he had two daughters, Lilian and Alberta.