At the University of Chicago Press, Philipson became known for large-scale scholarly projects such as The Lisle Letters (a six-volume collection of 16th-century correspondence by Arthur Plantagenet, 1st Viscount Lisle), The Works of Giuseppe Verdi, a four-volume translation of the Chinese classic The Journey to the West, and Jean-Paul Sartre’s five-volume The Family Idiot: Gustave Flaubert, 1821-1857.
He committed time and resources to lengthening the backlist, becoming known for assuming ambitious scholarly projects, among the largest of which was The Lisle Letters — a vast collection of 16th-century correspondence by Arthur Plantagenet, 1st Viscount Lisle, a wealth of information about every aspect of sixteenth-century life.
Arthur Conan Doyle | King Arthur | Arthur Miller | Arthur C. Clarke | Arthur | Arthur Ransome | Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma | Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson | Viscount | Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener | Port Arthur | Vickers Viscount | Chester A. Arthur | Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis | Arthur Balfour | Arthur Sullivan | 1st United States Congress | Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts | Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein | Arthur Rubinstein | William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley | Arthur Andersen | Sir Arthur Conan Doyle | Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer | Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn | George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham | Arthur Wellesley | William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe | Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford | Arthur Godfrey |
Yet the Crown did not hesitate to employ him on routine errands: in 1537 Queen Jane Seymour during her pregnancy developed a passion for quail, and since quail were abundant in the marshes around Calais, Lisle devoted much time to supplying them to the Queen.
When James was two years old in 1528 his father died and shortly thereafter his mother re-married to Arthur Plantagenet, 1st Viscount Lisle, an illegitimate son of King Edward IV, half-brother of Queen Elizabeth of York, and uncle of King Henry VIII, who was appointed by the latter Lord Deputy of Calais (1533-40).