About the Library

The Library provides information about all known published and unpublished works by H.E. Bates, currently numbering just over 1100 items, comprising novels, stories, non-fiction books and articles (including book reviews).

The Library includes:

• all 661 items listed in Peter Eads's H.E. Bates: A Bibliographical Study (1990)
• additional items unknown to Eads (12 stories, 3 poems and circa 150 essays including the only 3 non-fiction items with the byline "Flying Officer X.")
• over 300 book reviews intentionally excluded from his study

Also included are prefaces and introductions to Bates's published volumes as well as reviews of them. Users should note that commentary on a particular story will frequently be found in reviews of one or more of the collections in which a story appeared.

Additional information on Bates's book publications, including collations and publishing histories, can be found in the aforementioned H.E. Bates: A Bibliographical Study.

Originally known as The H.E. Bates Companion, the Library was created in the 1990s by Paul Machlis, a librarian at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Over time, the project became a collaboration with Victoria Wicks, granddaughter of H.E. Bates, and Inam Ulhaq.