Abstract/Summary

Feminist bibliography reconsiders the material history of women’s literary work, revaluing behind-the-scenes, sometimes self-effaced, editorial labour. Taking this method as practice, this chapter explores the work and life of Aki Hayashi (1889-1962), research assistant for thirty-five years to poet Edmund Blunden (1896-1974). Drawing on earlier work by Sumie Okada, the chapter makes available some of Hayashi’s surviving correspondence for the first time, foregrounding Hayashi’s research career and the intersectional difficulties she faced as a literary assistant in mid-twentieth century Britain. Exploring the interconnections of class, feminized editorial labour, transnational displacement, and racism, the chapter uses ideas of feminist bibliography as scaffolding to underscore Hayashi’s significance to the literary and bibliographic history of women’s work and labour.