“One of the Busiest Men in Manchester”: William Edward Armytage Axon (1846-1913) talk by Lucy Evans
Lucy Evans has written a biography of W E A Axon, an important figure in the history of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society and an almost unbelievably prolific writer and social reformer. Lucy has tracked down over 1000 books, pamphlets, articles (including many in the LCAS Transactions), obituaries, poems, translations, stories and dialect pieces so anyone interested in the history of Manchester will have come across him at some point! He came from a difficult background: born illegitimate, he was adopted by the Axons and was self-taught, including learning many languages, and his jobs included librarian at Manchester Central Library for ten years and on the literary staff of the Manchester Guardian for around thirty years.
Lucy M. Evans, is an author and retired librarian who enjoys delving into the obscure Victorian world of northern librarians and learned societies. She has previously written about the longevity guru Maurice Ernest and Andrea Crestadoro, a Chief Librarian in Manchester.