W. E. A. Axon (1846–1913)

Among the first bibliographers of Ruskin, William Edward Armytage Axon was a prolific and wide‐ranging scholar. He worked at the Manchester Free Library and for the Manchester Guardian, and he was active in numerous organizations, including the Manchester Literary Club. He contributed significantly to the study of local Lancashire history and literature (Hollingworth, “Axon”).

John Carter lists Axon among “that group of collectors which from the eighties onwards were concentrating on first editions of the Romantic and Victorian authors, and particularly on the poets” (Carter, Books and Book‐Collectors, 17).