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This addition to the cataloged papers of Penelope Fitzgerald combines accretions received
at the Ransom Center from 1996-2002. The bulk of the material dates from the 1990s,
with the
exception of photographs, early correspondence, and memorabilia for the Edward Burne-Jones,
L. P. Hartley, and Knox brothers biographies. Of particular interest in the L. P.
Hartley
biographical material, even though the biography remains unpublished, is correspondence
with
Lord David Cecil, Keith Clements, Ursula Codrington, Basil Gray, Francis Henry King,
Frank
Magro, Anthony Powell, Ralph Ricketts, Reresby Sitwell, and Kathleen Tillotson. |
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The primary challenge in arranging and listing Fitzgerald's literary papers is due
to her
method of writing in notebooks on multiple subjects. Because a single notebook can
be
physically present in only one location, a system of "see" references has been employed
to
cross-reference the various subject entries to the physical location of the notebook.
For
example, writings on William Blake, George Moore, Margaret Oliphant, Edward Thomas,
David
Leavitt, Andrea Levy, and Vladimir Nabokov appear in the same handwritten notebook,
but are
indexed separately under the book titles where Fitzgerald's material ultimately surfaced
in
print. Loose sheets of notes are interspersed throughout the notebooks and readers
should
exert caution in retaining the original order of this material. |
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The material is organized in three Series: I. Works, 1898-2001; II. Correspondence,
1970-2000; and III. Career-Related Material, 1968-1991. |
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The Works series contains research, notes, handwritten and typescript drafts,
correspondence, production material, publicity and reviews, in some measure, for The Afterlife: Essays and Criticism (2003), The Blue Flower (1996), Charlotte Mew and Her Friends (1984), Edward Burne-Jones (1975), The Gate of Angels (1990), The Golden Child (1977), A House of Air: Selected Writings (2003), Human Voices (1980), The Knox Brothers (1977), and The Means of Escape: Stories (2000). Also present are articles by
Fitzgerald, a contract with Collins Publishers for At Freddie's, a playscript of The Beginning of Spring adapted by Michael Pennington, essays and
reviews, introductions and afterwords, ideas for novels, and short stories. Two very
similar
works, The Afterlife and A House of Air, were published
almost simultaneously in 2003, and in paperback in 2005. They differ by a couple of
articles, for example "Vous Etes Belle," the Meaulnes essay, is only in
A House of Air. The paperback edition of A House of Air contains additional editorial material including a
biographical essay by Terence Dooley and a critical essay by Dean Flower and Linda
Henchey. |
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Arranged in date order, the correspondence in Series II. contains primarily incoming
letters in the categories of business, family, literary, personal, and publishers.
In
addition, there is considerable incoming correspondence from Raymond Watkinson and
J. Howard
Woolmer. Personal correspondents include A. L. Barker, Mavis Batey, Nina Bawden, Edward
Blishen, Tom Burns, Simon Callow, Christopher Carduff, Sally Cline, Michael Gough,
Michael
Holroyd, Hans Koning, Mary Lago, Penelope Lively, Candida McWilliam, Sylvia Peck,
Harvey
Pitcher, Michael Ratcliffe, and A. N. Wilson, among others. |
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Series III. Career-Related Material includes articles about Fitzgerald, notes for
conferences and judging literary prizes, interviews, lectures, and notebooks on a
variety of
subjects, from 1968-1969 teaching notes to Fitzgerald's 1991 trip to Tasmania for
a literary
festival. |
