John Edgell Rickword (1898-1982) was, according to F.R. Leavis, one of the most important figures in English poetry after the First World War. He was not a Cambridge man, in fact he went to Oxford, and his main connection to Downing College is his friendship with David Holbrook, who donated these papers. He was also however an inspiration to Leavis and his Scrutiny colleagues, who took the name of their journal from the series of Scrutinies in Rickword's journal: The Calendar of Modern Letters.