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Peter Rushforth Archive

Archive Collection: BC MS 20c Rushforth

Details

Type of record: Archive

Title: Peter Rushforth Archive

Level: Collection

Classmark: BC MS 20c Rushforth

Creator(s): Rushforth, Peter Scott (1945-2005)()

Date(s): 1967-2006

Language: English

Size and medium: 53 boxes containing manuscript, typescript, and printed material, plus diaries, notes, and newspaper clippings.

Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/6821

Collection group(s): English Literature

Description

Original deposit of 43 boxes includes:

(a) "Kindergarten" drafts, including sections titled 'Shadows of the Living' and 'The Other Side of Silence', TS and galley proofs of final version, with related notes, correspondence and reviews 1979-80 [Boxes 1-6]; (b) A manuscript diary of a visit to Prague in 1980 [Box 7]; (c) Four copies of "Dimensions - A Journal of Holocaust Studies", 1993-2000, containing articles/reviews by Rushforth [Box 8]; (d) "Pinkerton's Sister": early drafts, drafts numbered 3-8, 10-11, 12-14, and final version, with related notes and correspondence [Boxes 9-22]; (e) General notes and lists of literary passages for use in various novels [Boxes 23-25]; (f) Early drafts and notes relating to "A Real American Wife" [Boxes 26 and 27]; (g) "A Dead Language": drafts 1-3, annotated 5th draft, Autumn 2004 edit, and notes [Boxes 28-35]; (h) General correspondence 1967-1996 [Boxes 36-42]; (i) Miscellaneous material, including CD containing drafts of "Pinkerton's Sister", "A Dead Language", "Touching the Wound", and "A
Real American Wife"; author questionnaire; notes on sources and passages to use; list of literary references; photographs of Peter Rushforth; and material relating to his funeral [Box 43].


Additional deposit of 10 boxes includes press cuttings and correspondence relating to Kindergarten and Pinkerton's Sister. Draft of Pinkerton's Sister (with comments, 25pp). Draft copy of unpublished manuscript 'Shadows in the Water'. Various childhood notebooks, and items relating to Rushforth's education at Cockburn High School and teacher training at the University of Nottingham. A plastercast of Rushforth's hand [by Paul Barton]. Also various correspondence, including condolences following Rushforth's death, and a large file of correspondence relating to death of Gerard Galloway (correspondents include Emrys Hughes, Peter Rushforth, Rupert Braisier, R.L. Galloway, Phillipa Galloway, Khwan Barton, Paul Barton, Gerard Rochford, Christopher Pearson). Includes draft copies of poems by Gerard Galloway (Catullus, The Tree and Como Criaram A Noite').

Biography or history

Peter Scott Rushforth, novelist, was born on 15 February 1945 in Gateshead, County Durham but brought up in Leeds, where he went to Cockburn High School; he then took an English degree at Hull University. After a Dip Ed at Nottingham University, he taught for four years at Huddersfield New College before taking up a post at Friends' School in Great Ayton, North Yorkshire. His first novel was 'Kindergarten', published in 1979 (Winner of the 1980 Hawthornden Prize), followed twenty-six years later by 'Pinkerton's Sister'. He died at Blakey Ridge, North Yorkshire on 25 September 2005, and his final completed work, 'A Dead Language', was published posthumously in 2006. He had worked on drafts for further novels in a sequence provisionally entitled 'The Malady of Thought', which were in various stages of completion at the time of his death.

Access and usage

Access

This collection is subject to various access conditions. Please see individual catalogue descriptions for further details on access.

Collection hierarchy

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