Joint Hon. General Editors
Dr. Henry Summerson (medieval records and early modern to 1750, henry.summerson@tiscali.co.uk)
Prof. Jerry White (modern records from 1750, jerry.white@bbk.ac.uk)
The London Record Society was founded in December 1964 to publish and make available to a wide audience translations and abstracts of original documents and lists of primary sources for the history of London. We aim to publish one volume a year, distributed free to members of the Society, and available for sale to the public. Members of the Society include London and urban historians, academic libraries in Britain and North America, as well as those with a passion for learning more about London’s past. Review copies are sent to a number of historical and archive journals and to the press in general where we feel there is sufficient public interest.
We welcome proposals for scholarly editions of historical documents of value to anyone writing, studying or having an interest in London history. The Society publishes original documents from all periods of London history from the early medieval to living memory, and featuring all aspects of London life: cultural, economic, political, institutional, legal, religious, and social. Our interpretation of ‘London’ is flexible and broadly accommodates any district within the greater London area.
We will be delighted to discuss proposals from prospective editors who wish to consider publishing documents with us. We look for accuracy in transcription and scholarship in editing while valuing accessibility for those who might be coming to original documents for the first time. It will help for prospective editors to approach the relevant honorary general editor for a prior discussion or email exchange before submitting a proposal form. Proposals are considered by the Council of the Society and we aim to give speedy feedback to prospective editors.
We generally seek financial assistance or subsidy towards the cost of publishing a volume; an editor’s advice and assistance in identifying potential sources will be welcome but is not essential. Once the Council has accepted a proposal we hope to publish as soon possible once an acceptable final text is received by the Hon. General Editor, though there may inevitably be some delay in accommodating our publication schedule of generally one volume per year. As a charity, the London Record Society does not remunerate editors/authors, but they will receive six free copies of the volume on publication.
The Society’s editors include established historians of distinction, but many volumes have also been the work of either young scholars or of amateur historians of London with a track record in publication.
A full proposal for consideration by the Council of the Society should be made on the form available on the Society’s website, and should be accompanied by the proposer’s CV and ten pages of sample text. An outline of any expected editorial problems should be given in the summary, and the editor’s proposed method of presenting the material should be set out clearly. Editors are responsible for obtaining the permission of the owner of the record to publish their edition; usually there is no difficulty, but it would be wise to enquire about this at an early stage.
Volumes usually contain an editor’s introduction (of up to 10,000 words, depending on the length and complexity of the text) and one or more indexes and/or glossaries, if necessary, and bibliography in addition to the main text. The average length of each volume is 200 to 300 pages but longer volumes will be considered, as will the possibility of publishing lengthy texts in more than one volume. Texts will be produced in Word and submitted to the Society’s agents (Boydell & Brewer) electronically; detailed guidance on presentation and submission will be provided at the appropriate time.
If you wish to discuss a proposed volume further please contact in the first instance one of the Hon. Editors as listed at the head of this guidance.
London Record Society 