University of Texas at Austin

Aidan Higgins:

A Preliminary Inventory of His Papers at the Harry Ransom Center

Creator: Higgins, Aidan, 1927-2015
Title: Aidan Higgins Papers
Dates: 1960s-2010s
Extent: 43 boxes (17.86 linear feet)
Abstract: The Aidan Higgins Papers contains drafts, notebooks, diaries, correspondence, reviews, clippings, family-related items, career-related items, and other materials related to the career of Irish writer Aidan Higgins, primarily dated from the 1970s to the 2010s.
Call Number: Manuscript Collection MS-05345
Language: English
Access: Open for research. Researchers must create an online Research Account and agree to the Materials Use Policy before using archival materials. Part or all of this collection is housed off-site and may require up to three business days' notice for access in the Ransom Center's Reading and Viewing Room. Please contact the Center before requesting this material: reference@hrc.utexas.edu
Use Policies: Ransom Center collections may contain material with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in the collections without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the Ransom Center and The University of Texas at Austin assume no responsibility.
Restrictions on Use: Authorization for publication is given on behalf of the University of Texas as the owner of the collection and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder which must be obtained by the researcher. For more information please see the Ransom Centers' Open Access and Use Policies.


Administrative Information


Preferred Citation Aidan Higgins Papers (Manuscript Collection MS-05345). Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin.
Acquisition: Purchase, 2014 (14-06-015-P)
Processed by: Christine Bethke, Stephen Cooper, 2019 Note: This brief collection description is a preliminary inventory. The collection is not fully processed or cataloged and only generally describes the contents of each box; no descriptions of series or indexes are available.
Repository:

Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin

Scope and Contents


The Aidan Higgins Papers contains drafts, notebooks, diaries, correspondence, reviews, clippings, family-related items, career-related items, and other materials related to the career of Irish writer Aidan Higgins, primarily dated from the 1970s to the 2010s. The drafts of works and notebooks/diaries make up the bulk of the collection, with the drafts varying from very early handwritten versions to the final proofs for some works. The boxes containing correspondence are very generally described and may contain items in addition to letters, such as drafts of works, research material, and clippings.

Related Material


The Harry Ransom Center also holds Aidan Higgins materials in the Samuel Beckett Collection, the Elizabeth Hardwick Papers, the Alfred A. Knopf Records, and the Wallace Literary Agency Records.
Aidan Higgins materials are also held at the University of Victoria McPherson Library

Separated Material


Bound volumes and audio-visual materials received with the Higgins papers are listed below. They are housed and described separately at the Ransom Center:
Bound Volumes
Works by Higgins
  • Balcony of Europe, The Penguin Book of Irish Fiction, 1999
  • The Baron from the Balticum, Quito/Dublin Revue Bilingue No. 16
  • A Bestiary, 2004
  • The Bird I Fancied, Modern Irish Stories, 1985
  • Bornholm Night-Ferry, 2006
  • Boyhood, The Ireland Anthology, 1997
  • Colossal Gongorr and the Turkes of Mars, 1979
  • Dog Days: A Sequel to Donkey’s Years, 1998, 1999
  • Donkey’s Years: Memories of a Life as Story Told to Aidan Higgins, 1995 (2 copies), 2008
  • Flotsam and Jetsam, 1997
  • Helsingor Station and Other Departures, 1989
  • The Hidden Narrator, The Review of Contemporary Fiction, Fall 2011
  • Killachter Meadow, Modern Irish Short Stories, 1993
  • Langrishe, Go Down, 2000, 2004, 2007
  • Lebensraum, The Penguin Book of Irish Short Stories, 1981
  • Lions of the Grunewald, 1993, 1995
  • Musing, The Review of Contemporary Fiction, Fall 2008
  • On the Rack, Princeton University Library Chronicle, Autumn 2010
  • Reunions, The Flight Path, 1996
  • Ronda Gorge and Other Precipices, 1989
  • Scenes from a Receding Past, 2005
  • Sodden Fields, Kinsale Anthology, 2005
  • The Whole Hog: A Sequel to Donkey’s Years and Dog Days, 2000
  • Windy Arbours: Collected Criticism, 2005 (2 copies)
Works about Higgins
  • The Modern Irish Novel, Aidan Higgins, 2002
  • Murphy, Neil. Aidan Higgins, The Review of Contemporary Fiction, 2003
  • The Oxford Book of Ireland, 1998
Works by others
  • Anders, Jill. McDaid’s Wife: A Novel, 1988 (Higgins’ first wife)
  • Murphy, Neil, ed. The Fragility of Form, Aidan Higgins, 2010
Moving Image
  • Aidan Higgins, English Literature Society, 3-15-1985, VHS
Sound Recordings
  • Boomtown, CD
  • Discords of Good Humor, CD
  • Stye Lay Sleeping, Read by Pat Laffan, Stories for the Ear, CD
  • The Tomb of Dreams, CD
  • Zoo Station, CD

Container List