Bonamy Dobrée Archive
Details
Type of record: Archive
Title: Bonamy Dobrée Archive
Classmark: BC MS 20c Dobrée
Creator(s): Dobrée, Bonamy (1891-1974)()
Date(s): 1912-1973
Language: English
Size and medium: 26 boxes, 1 envelope, and 64 volumes; manuscript, typescript, photographs, press cuttings, and printed material.
Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/8449
Collection group(s): English Literature | Leeds Poetry
Description
Comprises: (a) 19 boxes of Bonamy Dobrée's autograph manuscript correspondence arranged A-Z by the names of the correspondents and dated between 1912 and 1973, including a large number of letters from T.S. Eliot and a box devoted to correspondence concerning Rudyard Kipling; (b) 1 box of his manuscript and typescript articles, reviews, and notebooks; (c) 1 large box of his lectures and drafts of his book on Kipling; (d) 1 large box of his lectures on and drafts of his contribution to the Oxford History of English Literature, relating to the years 1700-1740; (e) 1 envelope containing drafts of his lecture to the British Academy on 'Patriotism' and of his chapter on Defoe's prose in the volume entitled 'Pope and his contemporaries: essays presented to George Sherburn; edited by James L. Clifford and Louis A. Landa' (Oxford, 1949); (f) 1 box of Dobrée family photographs taken during most of the early and mid-twentieth century; (g) 3 boxes of material concerning Valentine Dobrée, including:
(i) Manuscript, typescript, and a printed copy of her book of poems 'This green tide' (1965), (ii) Miscellaneous poems and notebooks, and (iii) Reviews, letters, press cuttings, exhibition brochures, medals, and badges; (iii) 4 photographs of Bonamy Dobree and 1 of T. S. Eliot (iv) material relating to the estate of Bonamy Dobrée including related correspondence from Georgina Dobrée and a note on a retrospective exhibition of Valentine Dobrée's artwork.
Includes a few medals and badges.
Biography or history
The son of Bonamy Dobrée and Violet Chase, Bonamy (the younger) was born in 1891 and educated at Haileybury and the R.M.A., Woolwich. Commissioned in the Royal Artillery in 1910, he served in France and Palestine, and in the Second World War attained to the rank of Lt.Col. He graduated in 1921 from Christ's College, Cambridge, then lived mainly in France until 1925, when he was appointed a lecturer in English at Queen Mary College, London. There he was active in journalism and as theatre critic for the 'Nation & Athenaeum'. Between 1926 and 1936 he was Professor of English at Cairo before coming to his professorship at Leeds. After retirement in 1955 he became Gresham Professor of Rhetoric in London. He died in 1974. Dobrée is particularly remembered for his work on Restoration dramatists, eighteenth-century English literature, and Kipling. He was also a member of the Central Advisory Council for Education (England) and of the editorial board of 'Universities Quarterly'. Valentine
Dobrée (née Valentine Gladys May Pechell in 1894) married Bonamy Dobrée in 1913. She became an artist, poet, and novelist in her own right, with such works as 'Your cuckoo sings by kind', 'The emperor's tigers', 'To blush unseen', and 'This green tide' to her name, and died in the same year as her husband. Their daughter Georgina was born in 1930.
Provenance
Material relating to Dobrée's literary estate was donated to Special Collections by Terry Sole.
Access and usage
Access
This collection is subject to various access conditions. Please see individual catalogue descriptions for further details on access.
On our website
Profile: Bonamy Dobrée (1891-1974)
Bonamy Dobrée created an outstanding School of English at the University of Leeds and brought many well-known writers to the University. He was instrumental in establishing the Fine Art Department and setting up the Gregory Fellowships. His archive, containing hundreds of letters, was donated to the University by his daughter in 1988.