John Braine Archive
Details
Type of record: Archive
Title: John Braine Archive
Classmark: BC MS 20c Braine
Creator(s): Braine, John (1922-1986)()
Date(s): 1943-1995
Language: English
Size and medium: 37 boxes and 4 vols; manuscript, typescript, photographs, press cuttings, and printed material (partly photocopy).
Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/8423
Collection group(s): English Literature
Description
The literary archive of John Braine, comprising over 200 manuscript notebooks, 22 boxes of manuscript and typescript drafts and associated material. The collection is divided into 3 distinct series:
a) Notebooks, used either as journals or to draft work.
b) Manuscript and typescript drafts of various published and unpublished works.
c) Autobiographical material.
See series level records for more detailed description.
The collection also includes 4 of Braine's published works, namely: 'Room at the top', 1987 reprint, together with a Russian translation of the book, dated 1963; 'Life at the top', 1962; and 'These golden days'.
The collection is not complete, with further archival material held by West Yorkshire Archive Services.
Biography or history
John Gerard Braine (1922-1986), the Yorkshire-born writer. For a fuller account of his life and achievements see the Dictionary of National Biography.
Provenance
The first part of the archive to be acquired was purchased from Bertram Rota on 5 September 1975. More was purchased from Sotheby's on 11 August 1987. The main section of it was purchased from Bloomsbury Auction Rooms on 23 March 1988. Two individual items were added later one purchased from Mr R.P. Carr, Leeds University Librarian, on 16 August 1990; the other donated by Mr Colin Jackson on 22 November 1990. 'How to be a Novelist' (BC MS 20c Braine/E) was bought from Jonkers Rare books in 2019.
Access and usage
Access
Access to this material is unrestricted.