Preamble to part I

This Preamble introduces Part I of Studies on Spain, Portugal and Latin America in Memory of William C. Atkinson—the Part which mainly contains William Atkinson’s own memoirs edited, annotated and made widely available for the first time. Mostly written c.1971–1972, the memoirs cover all five decades in Atkinson’s career. In Chapter 1 he records his first-hand experiences of Spain in the mid 1920s; while not only in Chapter 5 but in an additional article, he sets down the impressions he formed of Latin America during five extensive lecture tours undertaken there between 1946 and 1971. In Chapter 3, titled ‘One Man’s War’, he describes what he did during World War II, while seconded to the Foreign Office: though based in Oxford, he was sent on several fact-finding missions to Spain and Portugal. In two other chapters, he recalls his experiences as Stevenson Professor of Hispanic Studies at the University of Glasgow, in the period from 1932 through to the early 1960s. Also published in Part I are archival documents and letters relevant to his memoirs; and there is an illuminating account by John C. McIntyre of ‘Professor William C. Atkinson (WCA) As Remembered by Some Former Students (1957–1962)’