ABSTRACT
Richard L. Purdy’s magisterial Thomas Hardy: A Bibliographical Study is the outstanding Hardy primary bibliography, towering over all other publications in the field.1 Moreover, more than fifty years after its first publication in 1954, ‘Purdy’ may be described without exaggeration as the bedrock underlying over half a century of Hardy scholarship. It is as difficult to overestimate the importance of the Bibliographical Study in Hardy studies as it is to point to other examples of scholarly works of its era which maintain a comparable influence today.2 Much of this survey will focus on the particular qualities and achievement of Purdy’s magnum opus. In order to assess it in context I will take a chronological approach, beginning by surveying Purdy’s predecessors and concluding with a consideration of more recent primary bibliographies.
