Recently I was asked to provide an appreciation of Alan Gauld for the Journal of Anomalous Experience and Cognition, which has now been published – ‘In Memoriam: Alan Gauld (1932-2024)’:
https://journals.lub.lu.se/jaex/article/view/28220
Unfortunately, I was limited to about
1,000 words, and was requested to focus on his publications. Space and structure precluded the inclusion
of more personal snippets that perhaps help to round out a little the portrait
of Alan as an individual. So here are
some bits and pieces that didn’t make the cut.
I was told by a third party that Alan’s
dedication to psychical research prevented him from achieving a professorship
at Nottingham. I don’t know if this is
true, but it sounds plausible. He
certainly had the ability and the credentials.
In his Journal of the Society for
Psychical Research obituary (April 2025, pp. 114-115), Cal Cooper notes
that the university awarded Alan a DLitt, and Alan said they had made a fuss of
him, so perhaps this was a belated attempt to make amends, rather like the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences giving a general honorary Oscar
after failing to do the right thing at the right time.
With Tony, in 1961 he investigated G W Lambert’s geophysical theory, which posited that poltergeists could be attributed to vibrations caused by the action of underground water. Their “house shaking experiments,” using electric motors (recounted in their 1979 book Poltergeists), resulted in a film featuring the entertaining spectacle of Tony leaning out of an upstairs window while a house scheduled for demolition was being hammered. They found the theory inadequate to account for the scale of reported poltergeist activity.
We corresponded over the years on various
aspects of psychical research, as he did with many colleagues, and he was
always ready to help with requests for information, particularly after I
started looking after the SPR website’s general enquiries inbox in 2011. When he was unable to attend meetings he
would ask me for reports of anything noteworthy that had occurred. In later years he became somewhat
disillusioned, as evidenced for example in this plea:
“Tell me, tell me (if you can do it
without your fingers crossed behind your back) that there is something really
interesting going on in psychical research!” (Personal communication, 21 March
2012)
Unsurprisingly, many of my memories of
Alan involve books. He was famous for
his bibliophilia, though his passion undermined his general amiability on at
least one occasion. Tony Cornell recounted how he and Alan were in a
bookshop one day and Tony asked Alan’s opinion about a particular book. Alan dismissively said it wasn’t very good so
Tony put it back, whereupon, Tony ruefully told me, Alan immediately picked it
up and bought it.
There are not many who can say, as Alan was able to, that they had read the complete run of both the SPR’s Proceedings and Journal, amounting to many thousands of pages, as well as the bulk of the American SPR’s publications. Added to his familiarity with numerous archives and the psychical research literature generally, he put this knowledge to good use in his books and articles, and all who knew him can testify to his erudition.
It was fitting that when the SPR’s paper
archive and rare books were transferred to Cambridge University Library (CUL)
in 1989, it was Alan, as President, who signed the agreement on behalf of the
SPR. When CUL had a number of rare
volumes belonging to the SPR stolen, they offered to replace them with similar
volumes from their own collection. Alan
was the person in the SPR best qualified to advise, and he was able to
discourse on the merits of different editions of antiquarian books, and whether
what was offered was as good as what had been lost.
After Alan Wesencraft, the long-serving
custodian of the Harry Price Library at Senate House, University of London,
finally retired in 1998 at the age of 86, Alan Gauld told me that when he was
writing A History of Hypnotism
(1992), Wesey (as Wesencraft was affectionately known) had allowed him to take
items home, including rare pamphlets on mesmerism.* This privilege was, I think, a mark of the
esteem in which Alan was held and the trust he engendered. I cannot imagine it would happen now,
whatever a scholar’s merits; different days.
In more recent years he invariably signed off emails to me “KBO” – keep buggering on – which I took to mean he thought I was doing OK. Coming from Alan it meant a lot.
*Kate Wesencraft, Alan Wesencraft's widow (with whom
I stayed in touch), told me after I wrote his obituary for the SPR Journal
(July 2008, pp. 188-90) that his body was donated to the University of
Leicester for use in medical research.
That summed up his general approach to life: one of kindness and help to
others.
Update 19 April 2026: Alan’s library sold
On Tuesday 14 April, Alan Gauld’s
remarkable – and extensive – library went under the hammer at auctioneers
Mellors & Kirk in Nottingham, Alan’s home city. The online catalogue listed 129 lots,
testament to his dedication as a true bibliophile. There were some absolute rarities and many
other scarce titles, some of which were unfortunately batched so that anyone
wanting a particular book had to bid for several that might not be
required. At the other end of the scale
commoner books, and journals, were sold by the shelfful.
On the day, Society for Psychical Research
representatives attended, along with other SPR members. I wasn’t able to go, but submitted some
commission bids, none of which was successful.
Once I saw the results, I could see why: all the lots fetched high
prices. In particular I have been told
that anonymous online bidders from Australia and the United States put in
substantial bids on a large number of items.
As far as I can tell, all the lots sold
fetched more than their upper estimates, and some of the choicer items reached four
figures (on top of which buyers had to pay a 24-25.5% premium, depending on how
they had bid). The SPR, with a limited
budget to cover both the London library and the Cambridge archive, only managed
to secure a single batch of books. I
concluded that some of the lots perhaps sold for more than they were worth,
which was to be expected when there was so much competition. Only three lots were unsold, and by my
estimate, after auctioneers’ fees and VAT, the estate netted a cool £50,766.20.
The prices achieved indicate the
popularity of the subjects covered by Alan’s collection. I was disappointed not to obtain any of the
books, as I would have liked to own something that had belonged to him. More generally it was sad to see such a fine
library dispersed, with items vanishing overseas. I thought of all the time and effort he had
devoted to assembling it, and how much it reflected his personality. Like him, it has now gone.
There had been hopes that it would be
donated to the SPR, but it is understandable that Alan’s heirs would wish to
realise its significant financial value.
As a consolation, the Society was given his extensive psychical research
files, and these will be sorted, catalogued, and incorporated into the archive
at Cambridge University Library. So,
while Alan’s books were lost to the SPR, at least much of his legacy will be
made available to scholars.