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Many long years ago, while researching my biography of the psychoanalyst Dr Donald Winnicott (Kahr, 1996), I had the opportunity to consult numerous archival depositories around the world, in search of unpublished letters and papers. Miss Pearl King, founder of the archives at the British Psycho-Analytical Society, very kindly permitted me to inspect literally thousands of rare documents relating to Winnicott, which she had lovingly preserved, all of which proved most useful.
One day, while ensconced in the library of Byron House in London's Maida Vale, headquarters of the psychoanalytical society, a gentleman arrived carrying a very large box of books. I soon learned that these rather dusty volumes had once belonged to Donald Winnicott himself, and although I do not quite know the precise provenance, some kind soul had donated these books to the psychoanalytical library. To my good fortune, Ms Karina Barone, a member of the library staff—knowing of my research interests—graciously permitted me the privilege of being the first person to examine this rare cache of gems from Winnicott's very own collection.
I shall never forget my excitement at holding these wonderful tomes, which I did with great care and, indeed, with tremendous awe; and, over the course of several hours, I scoured through every single page of each of the many books, in search of any handwritten annotations. Winnicott, by no means an academic or a scholar per se, did not underline most of his books, but one volume, in particular, really stood out most singularly, as it contained numerous pencil markings, scrawled in Winnicott's unmistakably florid script.
Although I had heard of this particular book before, I must confess that I had never read it. But now, with so many priceless annotations in front of me, I could not resist, and I proceeded to devour this extraordinary text, published in 1939—an edited collection entitled A Survey of Child Psychiatry, curated by the Scottish-born physician Dr Ronald G