Descriptive Summary
Strachey, Lytton,
1880-1932
Lytton Strachey Collection
1885-1957
TCRC98-A26
5 boxes (2.08 linear feet)
Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin
This collection documents
the life and works of the English Bloomsbury group writer. The collection
consists of manuscripts of Strachey's major biographical works
Portraits in Miniature (1931) and
Queen Victoria (1921), and drafts of
essays, notes, and correspondence.
English.
Biographical Sketch
Giles Lytton Strachey was born in 1880, the eleventh of thirteen
children, to General Sir Richard Strachey and his wife Jane Grant. Though he
spent some years at boarding schools, including Abbotsholme and Leamington
College, he received much of his education at home. His mother enjoyed strong
interests in literature and politics and Strachey met many of the leading
writers and thinkers of the day when they came to visit Lady Strachey.
Strachey's secondary education was completed at University College in Liverpool
where he studied Latin, Greek, mathematics, and English literature and history.
It was at University College that he met and was influenced by Walter Raleigh,
a professor of English literature and well known biographer.
After failing to receive a scholarship to Oxford in 1899, Strachey
decided to attend Cambridge where he developed many friendships which lasted
the rest of his life. At Cambridge he met Clive Bell, Thoby Stephen, and
Leonard Woolf, with whom he started the Midnight Society and the X Society.
Along with many other future Bloomsberries he was
elected to the Apostles. In 1903 fellow Apostle G.E. Moore's
Principia Ethica was published, producing a
profound effect on the aspiring intellectuals.
Principia became a rationalizing factor in
loosening the repression of homosexual tendencies among the Apostles and in
Trinity and King's College as well.
Strachey completed his work at Cambridge with a thesis on Warren
Hastings but failed to receive a Trinity fellowship. He returned to his
parents' home in Lancaster Gate and sought to support himself as a journalist.
Much of his social life centered on the Bloomsbury group which focused on the
Thursday night at-homes of the Stephenses (Thoby,
Adrian, Vanessa [Bell], and Virginia [Woolf]). Over the next several years
Strachey traveled, visited friends and wrote his first book,
Landmarks in French Literature (1912) which
was commissioned by H.A.L. Fisher. In 1910 Strachey made the acquaintance of
Ottoline Morrell with whom he carried on a playful and extended correspondence
over the years. Through Morrell he met Henry Lamb and Henry Norton, who loaned
him £100 to rent a cottage so he could begin his next major work,
Eminent Victorians (1918). In 1915 Strachey
met Dora Carrington, a graduate of the Slade School of Art and the woman who
would shortly devote herself to him for the rest of his life.
In 1917 Strachey and Carrington moved into a cottage in Tidemarsh,
Oxfordshire, and continued to carry on with their personal lives. Carrington
maintained a relationship with fellow artist Mark Gertler before marrying Ralph
Partridge in 1921, and Strachey moved through a series of relationships as
well. Strachey's time at Tidemarsh cottage was also spent productively writing.
He followed
Eminent Victorians with
Queen Victoria (1921) and produced a
collection of essays,
Books and Characters as well. His style was
becoming very popular and he began to achieve a measure of fame which allowed
him to support himself and his household from the proceeds of his writing. In
1924 Strachey purchased the lease to Ham Spray House and he, along with
Carrington and Partridge, moved in. He completed
Elizabeth and Essex in 1928 and started
The Greville Memoirs which were completed
posthumously by Ralph and Frances Partridge and Roger Fulford.
Though his frequent ill-health often made it difficult, Strachey enjoyed
traveling and made several trips abroad between 1928 and 1931. Late in 1931 he
began to decline rapidly from an illness which doctors were unable to identify.
He died January 21, 1932, of what was later found to be stomach cancer.
Carrington committed suicide a few weeks later, unable to live without him.
Scope and Contents
Manuscripts and correspondence make up equal halves of the Lytton
Strachey Collection, 1885-1957. The materials are organized into two series,
with materials arranged alphabetically by title or author: I. Works, 1886-1931
(2.5 boxes) and II. Correspondence, 1885-1957 (2.5 boxes). This collection was
previously accessible through a card catalog, but has been re-cataloged as part
of a retrospective conversion project.
The Works Series is composed of holograph and typescript manuscripts of
two of Strachey's major biographical undertakings
Portraits in Miniature (1931), and
Queen Victoria (1921). Also present are
drafts of the well-known essay English Letter
Writers (1905) and research notes for various biographical projects.
Several poems are also included with a letter from Strachey to Leonard Woolf.
Titles are indexed in the Index of Works at the end of this guide.
The Correspondence Series is composed of three sections: Subseries A.
Outgoing Correspondence, 1885-1931; Subseries B. Incoming Correspondence,
1889-1931; and Subseries C. Third-Party Correspondence, 1890-1957. Most of the
letters present are accumulations of Strachey's correspondence with his mother,
Lady Jane Strachey, and Leonard Woolf. A few letters between people other than
Strachey are present, including a postcard from Strachey's sister Philippa to
James Doggart, written in 1957. All correspondents can be identified using the
Index of Correspondents in this guide.
Elsewhere in the Ransom Center is a photograph of Strachey, located in
the Literary Files of the Photography Collection, and a Vertical File
containing clippings of reviews of Strachey's publications. A portrait of
Strachey painted by Robert Fry is also present in the Art Collection.
Acquisition
Purchases, 1960-1970 (R919, R1452, R2848, R3849, R3948, R4152,
R5174)
Access
Open for research
Processed by
Chelsea S. Jones, 1998
Sources
Holroyd, Michael.
Lytton Strachey: The New Biography. (New
York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1994).
Palmer, Alan and Veronica.
Who's Who in Bloomsbury. (New York: St.
Martin's Press, 1987).
Other materials associated with Strachey may be found in the following
collections at the Ransom Center:
- Hardy, Thomas
- Hutchinson, Mary
- Lehmann, John
- Moeller, Philip
- Morrell, Ottoline Violet Anne
- PEN
- Sassoon, Siegfried Lorraine
Index Terms
Correspondents
Partridge,
Ralph.
Strachey, Lady (Jane
Maria), 1840-1928.
Strachey, Richard, Sir,
1817-1908.
Woolf, Leonard,
1880-1969.
Subjects
Victoria, Queen of Great
Britain, 1819-1901.
Biography.
Bloomsbury group.
Literature--History and
criticism.
Document types
Postcards.
Lytton Strachey Collection--Folder List
Series I. Works,
1886-1931, nd
1
1
Elizabeth and Essex, holograph fragment,
nd,
1p
English Letter Writers
(1905)
1
2
Holograph with author corrections,
nd,
111pp
1
3
Typescript,
nd,
96pp
1
4
Notebook, holograph notes,
nd,
26pp
1
5
Notes, holograph,
nd,
10pp
Portraits in Miniature
(1931)
1
6
Holograph fragments and holoscript with author
revisions,
nd,
84pp
1
7-8
Page proofs, three sets, one with heavy editing,
1931
Queen Victoria
(1921)
1
9-10
Holograph manuscript,
nd,
302pp
2
1
Holograph, continued
2
2-3
Typescript,
nd,
352pp
2
4
Page proofs, first revisions,
1921,
315pp
2
5-6
Typescript with revisions,
nd,
358pp
2
7
Research notes, holograph in notebooks and loose pages,
nd,
150pp
3
1
Research notes, continued
3
2
R-Z
3
3
School reports,
1886-1897
Series II. Correspondence,
1885-1957
Subseries A. Outgoing Correspondence,
1885-1931
3
4
A-Z
3
5-6
Partridge, Ralph,
1919-1931
Strachey, Jane Maria Grant, Lady,
1885-1925
3
7
1885-1893
3
8
1894-1895
4
1
1896-July 1899
4
2
Oct. 1899-1904
4
3
1905-1925
Woolf, Leonard,
1900-1918
4
4
1900-1902
4
5
1903-July 1904
4
6
Aug.-Dec. 1904
4
7
1905-1918
Subseries B. Incoming Correspondence,
1889-1931
5
1
The Burlington Fine Arts Club,
1929
5
2
Partridge, Ralph,
1923-1931
Strachey, Jane Maria Grant, Lady,
1889-1927
5
3
1889-1894
5
4
1895-1896
5
5
1897-1899
5
6
1900-1927
5
7
Strachey, Richard, Sir,
1889-1903
5
8
Woolf, Leonard,
1911-1929
Subseries C. Third-Party Correspondence,
1890-1957
5
9
A-Z
Lytton Strachey Collection--Index of Correspondents
Box and folder numbers are followed by a number in parenthesis which
indicates the number of items by that person. A single item is indicated where
there is no number in parenthesis following the box and folder number. Where
there is correspondence from Lytton Strachey, the number in parentheses is
followed by the phrase from Strachey. So in the
example:
Patridge, Ralph--3.5-6 (127 from Strachey), 5.2 (8), 5.9
there are 127 letters from Strachey to Partridge, located in Box 3,
Folders 5 and 6, eight letters from Partridge located in Box 5, Folder 2, and
one letter from Partridge in Box 5, Folder 9.
- Ackerley, J.R. (Joe Randolph), 1896-1967--3.4 (2 from Strachey)
- Alker, Ralph--3.4 (from Strachey)
- Brinton, Roland D.--5.9 (4)
- Burlington Fine Arts Club--5.1
- Carrington, Dora de Houghton, 1893-1932--5.9
- Cholmeley, Robert Francis--5.9
- Doggart, James Hamilton--3.4 (13 from Strachey)
- Duff, J.D. (James Duff), 1860-1940--5.9 (5)
- Edgell, R. Arnold--5.9 (4)
- Forde, Henry--5.9 (6)
- Grant, Agnes--5.9
- Leathes, Stanley Mordaunt, Sir, 1861- --5.9
- Partridge, Frances, 1900- --3.4 (from Strachey)
- Partridge, Ralph--3.5-6 (127 from Strachey), 5.2 (8), 5.9
- Stookes, Alexander--5.9
- Strachan-Davidson, J.L. (James Leigh), 1843-1916--5.9
- Strachey, Lady (Jane Maria), 1840-1928--3.7-4.3 (368 from
Strachey), 5.3-5.6 (232), 5.9
- Strachey, John St. Loe, 1860-1927--5.9
- Strachey, Philippa--5.9
- Strachey, Richard, Sir, 1817-1908--3.4 (10 from Strachey), 5.7
(13)
- Strachey Siblings--3.4 (10 from Strachey)
- Thursfield, Thomas W.--5.9
- Woolf, Leonard, 1880-1969--4.4-7 (160 from Strachey), 5.8 (65)
Lytton Strachey Collection--Index of Works
- The Category--4.7 (included with letter to Leonard Woolf, March
11, 1905)
- The Conversation--4.7 (included with letter to Leonard Woolf,
March 11, 1905)
- Elizabeth and Essex--1.1
- English Letter Writers--1.2-3
- To Him--4.7 (included with letter to Leonard Woolf, March 11,
1905)
- Loves Uncertainties--4.7 (included with letter to Leonard Woolf,
March 11, 1905)
- My love is larger than the
universe...--4.7 (included with letter to Leonard Woolf, March 11, 1905)
- Portraits in Miniature--1.6-8
- Queen Victoria--1.9-3.1
- The Resolution--4.7 (included with letter to Leonard Woolf, March
11, 1905)
- Review of
- The Praise of Shakespeare: an English
Anthology,compiled by C.E. Hughes--3.2
- The Rise of English Culture, by
Edwin Johnson--3.2
- Two Books on the Sonnets of Shakespeare--3.2
- The Situation--4.7 (included with letter to Leonard Woolf, March
11, 1905)
- The Sonnet--3.2
- The Speculation--4.7 (included with letter to Leonard Woolf, March
11, 1905)
- To D.C. and R.P., March 1st, 1920--3.2
- The Two Triumphs--4.7 (included with letter to Leonard Woolf,
March 11, 1905)