Wilfred Childe Archive
Details
Type of record: Archive
Title: Wilfred Childe Archive
Classmark: BC MS 20c Childe
Creator(s): Childe, Wilfred Rowland (1890-1952)()
Date(s): c.1920-1998
Language: English
Size and medium: 6 boxes; manuscript (some photocopy), typescript, photographs, press cuttings, postcards, and printed material.
Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/8421
Description
Comprises: (1) 34 larger or smaller notebooks of Wilfred Childe's autograph manuscript poems, only partially dated, 1920 onwards; (2) 20 folders holding more of his manuscript poems, some held in copies of newspapers dated variously from 1933 to 1949; (3) 30 copies of journal issues or books which include one or more poems by him, notably issues of 'The poetry review', 'Northern review', 'Northern lights', 'Poetry Manchester', 'The Yorkshire Catholic monthly', 'Leeds University poetry', 1950, 'Leeds University Verse Anthology', 1949, and a copy of Childe's book 'The Little City', 1912; also included is Alan Hadfield's play 'Great is Diana', 1946, to which Childe wrote the preface, and a copy of "Shakespeare's Sonnets, ed. by C.C. Stopes (1904), heavily annotated by Childe and with an inserted funeral card for him; (4) At least 12 packets containing a miscellany of manuscript poems, press cuttings including one or more of his poems, and some correspondence, notably between Wilfred Childe and
John Gawsworth, 1934-1951; (5) A typescript memoir of Wilfred Childe written by his brother, Godfrey S. Childe, 1954, and a typed extract from an unpublished autobiography by E.H.W. Meyerstein; (6) 1 framed silhouette profile of Childe dated 4 July 1923; (7) 1 copy of the publication issued by the University of Leeds on the opening of the Brotherton Library on 6 October 1936; (8) An obituary card for Childe issued by Mr and Mrs Godfrey Childe in January 1953, including a small photograph of him; (9) A typescript essay on Childe's work by Jonathan Wood, entitled 'An English Dream of Sacred Ivory Towers', 1997; (10) Various lists and notes on the archive made at the times of acquiring the material. It has been estimated that the whole archive probably includes nearly 2000 poems in manuscript or typescript, of which a minority are duplicates or close copies. Many of the poems are unpublished. The archive also includes 2 verse plays, neither of which appears to have been published. The
notebooks include some lecture notes and a short religious tale.
Includes a small framed silhouette of Childe's profile.
Biography or history
Wilfred Rowland Childe (1890-1952), the English Catholic poet and lecturer in English literature at the University of Leeds from 1922 until his death. For fuller details of his life and achievements, see 'Who was who', Vol.5.
Access and usage
Access
This collection is subject to various access conditions. Please see individual catalogue descriptions for further details on access.