"The creation of a musical is the most satisfying thing in the world..." Sandy Wilson, talk given at Oxford, May 5, 1955
The papers of British author, composer, and lyricist Sandy Wilson include his produced and unproduced plays, mostly musicals but also plays for stage and television, as well as drafts of his published and unpublished works including an autobiography, illustrated book, novels, articles, and short stories, along with correspondence spanning a 60 year period from the 1930s to 1990s. His musicals, produced worldwide, especially his long-running play
The collection is arranged in three Series: Series I. Works, 1936-1994, Series II. Career-Related Material, and Series III. Correspondence, 1953-1996.
Series I is subdivided into Subseries A. Major Works, 1943-1994 and Subseries B. Notebooks and Drafts, 1936-1981. The produced and unproduced, published and unpublished works in Subseries A are arranged alphabetically by title, regardless of literary form. Within titles, the order follows the creative process from notes and drafts to the completed work. For example, for the musical
The largely unpublished writings in Subseries B, arranged chronologically from 1936-1981, are also predominantly in the form of holograph notebooks, often with multiple works contained in a single notebook. Included are plays, novel fragments, short stories, lyrics, sketches, talks, scripts, notes for musicals, memoirs, articles, and reviews, some of which represent drafts of works present in Subseries A.
The career-related material in Series II includes articles by and about Wilson, newspaper clippings, photographs, programs, scrapbooks, sheet music, sketches, and songs, for the most part not directly related to materials in Series I.
Personal and professional correspondence from 1953-1996 forms the bulk of Series III. Also included are fan mail and correspondence related to Wilson's long-time friend and agent, Joan Rees.
Gift, 1999 (G11358)
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Liz Murray, 1999