Correspondence from Tony Harrison to Harry Thomas
Details
Type of record: Archive
Title: Correspondence from Tony Harrison to Harry Thomas
Classmark: MS 1997
Date(s): 25 Mar 1986 - 27 Sep 2003
Size and medium: 24 items
Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/503799
Collection group(s): English Literature
Description
Correspondence in the form of postcards and letters from Tony Harrison to Harry Thomas, beginning when Thomas was an academic at Boston University. Thomas invited Harrison to give a lecture at the Boston University in the mid-1980s to a course he was covering on The Art of Translation. Following Harrison’s lecture, which was on translating The Misanthrope for the National Theatre, Thomas was keen to promote Harrison’s work in the United States. He introduced Harrison to Jonathan Galassi at the publishing firm Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and encouraged the publication of The Common Chorus and Lysistrata in the Boston magazine Agni.
Harrison’s correspondence with Thomas from March 1986 until September 2003 offers an insight into his working life particularly from the mid- to late-eighties. Sent from Newcastle, Brussels, Delphi, and the United States, these postcards and letters detail periods of continual travel for productions and research interspersed by other projects, including Harrison’s work with the National Theatre. The correspondence includes comments on ‘The Trackers of Oxyrynchus’ from its inception to first performance in Delphi, and subsequent tours, as well as the press-furore that accompanied the publication and broadcasting of V.
Associated correspondence from Harry Thomas to Tony Harrison can also be found in the University of Leeds Special Collections, Classmark: BC MS 20c Harrison / 05 / HTH
Access and usage
Access
Material in this collection is in copyright. Photocopies or digital images can only be supplied by the Library for research or private study within the terms of copyright legislation. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain the copyright holder's permission to reproduce for any other purpose. Guidance is available on tracing copyright status and ownership.
On our website
Profile: Tony Harrison
A biography of the poet Tony Harrison and his association with the University of Leeds where he was a student in the late 1950s.
Research spotlight: Tony Harrison (born 1937)
Studying at the University of Leeds was the boyhood goal of working-class Tony Harrison from Beeston, Leeds. Today he is one of Britain's greatest living poets, having won many literary prizes, including the European Prize for Literature, 2010. His literary archive lives - and grows - in Special Collections at Leeds University Library.