Papers of Charles Granston Richards

No Carpet on the Floor: Recollections and Reflections, typescript memoirs concerning his missionary and literary/publishing work in Africa, 1935-1975, with a list of his papers held at the School of Oriental and African Studies, [1977-1995].

Charles Granston Richards (fl 1908-1996) travelled to Kenya, 1935 with the Church Missionary Society, his special responsibility being the encouragement of literacy and literature among East Africans. Working through the Church Missionary Society in Nairobi, he became a publisher. He wrote the report which led to the foundation of the East African Literature Bureau in 1948, and was its first Director, a post he held for 15 years.

In 1963 he transferred to the Oxford University Press to build up its publishing in East Africa, but was released to work part-time in the setting up of the Christian Literature Fund of the World Council of Churches. He was Director of the Fund, 1965-1970 and of its successor, the Agency for Christian Literature Development, 1970-1974, working constantly 'in the field'. On his retirement as Director, the Agency was replaced by the Print Media Development Unit. Richards kept up an active association with this and with other literature and literacy-based agencies. Other activities included serving on the British Committee on Literacy and the conducting of an evaluation of the South African Bureau of Literacy.

Bodleian reader's ticket required.

Collection level description created by Paul Davidson, Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies at Rhodes House.

The library holds a card index of all manuscript collections in its reading room.

No reproduction or publication of personal papers without permission. Contact the library in the first instance.

No carpet on the floor: recollections and reflections on the work of 40 years, 1935-1975, in the development of literature and publishing chiefly in the Third World, by Charles Granston Richards, with list of papers deposited in the School of Oriental and African Studies (ref. MSS. Afr. s. 1786). The papers of Charles Granston Richards, 1935-1995, comprising articles, reports, books, pamphlets and correspondence are held in the School of Oriental and African Studies.