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Scope and Contents |
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The Hesketh Pearson Papers document the career and personal life of the biographer
and author of short stories, dramatic works, and travel books through
correspondence, manuscripts, proofs, photographs, clippings, diaries, and notebooks.
The papers were formerly in the possession of biographer Michael Holroyd, who
served
as Pearson's literary executor and, after the death of Pearson's widow Joyce in
1975, his heir; consequently the collection also includes papers and correspondence
generated by Holroyd in these capacities. The papers are arranged in five series:
Series I. Works, 1894-1982 (8 boxes); Series II. Correspondence, 1910-1963 (2
boxes); Series III. Personal, 1789-1959 (7 folders); Series IV. Joyce Pearson,
1964-1975 (2 folders); and Series V. Michael Holroyd, 1926-2001 (21 folders).
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The Pearson papers throw light on the working processes of a biographer: how subjects
are chosen or abandoned, where and how biographical information is sought,
negotiations with publishers, and the difficulties that can arise in dealing with
subjects or their heirs. In addition, Pearson's correspondence and diaries are
replete with opinions on literary, political, and religious topics as well as
information on the subjects of his books, details of his working methods,
information about his and his correspondents' personal lives, and discussions
of
well-known figures living and dead, particularly in the fields of literature and
theater. |
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The collection contains significant amounts of correspondence and research material
concerning several of the subjects of Pearson's biographies: Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle,
W. S. Gilbert, Frank Harris, Sir Walter Scott, Beerbohm Tree, and Oscar Wilde.
Among
the correspondents are A. P. Buckland-Plummer, Adrian Conan Doyle, Norman Charles
Hunter, Hugh Kingsmill, Arthur Leonard Ross, Robert Sherard, and P. G. Wodehouse.
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Series Descriptions |
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Series I. Works, 1894-1982 (8 boxes) |
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This series is divided into two subseries: A. Books, 1894, 1920-1982, and B.
Other Works, 1903-1959. The subseries dealing with his book-length works is
arranged alphabetically by book title, reflecting the way many of his papers
were originally filed, including those letters and clippings he frequently
placed inside his personal copies of his books; the Correspondence series
may also contain material on the same subjects, as Pearson's filing was not
always consistent. Within each title materials are arranged in this
sequence: manuscripts, correspondence, research materials, page proofs (all
of which bear corrections in Pearson's handwriting), illustrations, and
clippings. Authors of correspondence are identified in the Index of
Correspondents in this guide. |
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Most of Pearson's books are represented by at least some materials in the
collection, beginning with his first full-length biography, Doctor Darwin (1930). Handwritten manuscripts
are here for Pearson's two last books: Extraordinary
People (1965, incomplete) and Hesketh
Pearson by Himself (1965). Correspondence in the collection
indicates that Pearson and, after his death, his wife sold most of his
manuscripts as well as his correspondence with such famous figures as George
Bernard Shaw, Frank Harris, and Winston Churchill. Of particular note in
this series are correspondence and clippings documenting the extremely
unfavorable reaction of some of the children of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to
Pearson's biography of their father, particularly that of Adrian Conan
Doyle; these materials are arranged chronologically and extend into the
period of Holroyd's executorship in order to present more fully the history
of this episode. The correspondence and research materials for Extraordinary People mainly concern Frank Harris
and include a 1920 letter from Sir Basil Thomson of the Metropolitan Police
discussing Harris's pro-German activities during World War I. Throughout the
correspondence and research materials there are many transcriptions of
letters by figures such as Shaw, Harris, Alfred Douglas, Beerbohm Tree, and
Gilbert and Sullivan that were used in writing the biographies; these
transcriptions have not been indexed. |
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The Other Works subseries contains mostly shorter works written by Pearson:
articles, book reviews, diaries, dramatic works, juvenilia, a notebook, and
the manuscripts or page proofs of short stories and talks. All items are
arranged either alphabetically by title or chronologically if untitled. The
juvenilia are two volumes of a "magazine"
the teenaged Pearson wrote for his family, primarily containing brief lives
of famous persons. The diaries, covering 1923-1924 and 1940-1959, are a rich
source of information about Pearson's extremely wide circle of friends in
the literary world. The diaries for 1940-1941 were supplemented by Pearson
with indexes of persons mentioned in their pages. The last actual diary
entry is on 6 August 1945, followed by several dated notes made by Pearson
as he reread the volumes over the next few years. |
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Series II. Correspondence, 1910-1963 (2 boxes) |
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The correspondence is arranged in alphabetical order by correspondent, with
incoming and outgoing letters interfiled. A highlight of the papers is
Pearson's lively correspondence (1921-1949) with his close friend and
coauthor Hugh Kingsmill. Their letters, numbering over 700, are not
complete: there is no correspondence from Kingsmill for the year 1946, and
Pearson's letters between 15 August 1940 and 25 January 1948 are missing.
Occasionally they enclose correspondence from other writers with their
letters; these third-party letters have been indexed only when they are
originals and not transcriptions. Other correspondents well represented in
this series are the playwright Norman Hunter, Shaw's friend Eleanor
O'Connell, Harris's former associate A. P. Buckland-Plummer, Harris's
literary executor Arthur Leonard Ross, Wilde biographer Robert Sherard,
Scott scholar Percy R. Stevenson, and writer P. G. Wodehouse. The Wodehouse
folder also contains Pearson's 1947 correspondence with Frank Soskice of the
Royal Courts of Justice in an effort to determine if, on Wodehouse's return
to England, he would be prosecuted for having participated in German radio
broadcasts during World War II. Although Pearson was the biographer and
close friend of Shaw and knew Harris well, no original letters from either
are in this collection. |
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Series III. Personal, 1789-1959 (7 folders) |
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Among the personal items in the collection are the correspondence of
Pearson's mother's family (including the Biggs, Bree, and Moilliet families)
from 1789 to 1912 and arranged chronologically; records, correspondence,
medals, and a photograph album containing about 225 photographs documenting
his military service in Mesopotamia during World War I; acting scripts for
the Forum scene in Julius Caesar prepared by
Granville-Barker and Tree and used by Pearson during his career on the
stage; various birth and marriage certificates and driver's licenses; the
program of Pearson's memorial service and obituaries; and snapshots and
portrait photographs. Among the photographs is a series of snapshots of
Pearson, his first wife Gladys, and their friends John Wardrop and Eleanor
O'Connell taken by George Bernard Shaw on an occasion that is recorded in
Pearson's diary for 6 August 1945. |
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Series IV. Joyce Pearson, 1964-1975 (2 folders) |
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Most of the letters addressed to Pearson's widow Joyce are letters of
condolence upon her husband's death in 1964. There are also a few letters
written to and from friends and family before her death in 1975. Everything
in this series is arranged alphabetically by correspondent. |
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Series V. Michael Holroyd, 1926-2001 (21 folders) |
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In this series Holroyd's works are grouped together and arranged
alphabetically, followed by a small number of business papers mostly
consisting of book contracts, his correspondence arranged alphabetically
with incoming and outgoing letters interfiled (including several letters
from Pearson), and finally some third-party works and correspondence and a
small amount of unidentified materials. The bulk of Holroyd's papers concern
his biography of Kingsmill, written with guidance from Pearson; his
involvement with the publication of new editions of Pearson's works; and his
own articles on Pearson and Kingsmill. The chronologically arranged
correspondence associated with the writing of Hugh
Kingsmill (1964) tells the story of Holroyd's difficult
negotiations with Kingsmill's widow, Dorothy Hopkinson, over the use of
Kingsmill's literary remains and includes several letters from Pearson. |
