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Rayner Heppenstall, literary manuscripts, journals, press cuttings, and correspondence

Archive Collection: BC MS 20c Heppenstall

Details

Type of record: Archive

Title: Rayner Heppenstall, literary manuscripts, journals, press cuttings, and correspondence

Level: Collection

Classmark: BC MS 20c Heppenstall

Creator(s): Heppenstall, Rayner (1911-1981)()

Date(s): 1933-1987

Language: English

Size and medium: 4 boxes; manuscript, typescript, postcards, press cuttings, and printed material (photocopy).

Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/8475

Collection group(s): English Literature

Description

Comprises: (Box 1) 12 autograph manuscript diaries compiled by Rayner Heppenstall between 1969 and 1981; (Box 2) 6 scrapbook volumes of news cuttings compiled by him between 1947 and his death, including some reviews of 'The Master Eccentric' published in 1986-1987, subsequently added; and (Box 3) (i) The typescript draft of his journal for the years 1970-1981, (ii) An obituary of Heppenstall printed in 'The Annual Obituary', published by St Martin's Press (n.d.) (photocopy), (iii) 51 autograph manuscript letters from J.I.M. Stewart to Heppenstall, written from Leeds, Adelaide, and Oxford, and dated 1933-1968, and (iv) Papers and correspondence relating to 'Bluebeard and after' and 'The sex war' by Heppenstall, dated ca. 1971-1972. (Box 4) TS drafts (1 with manuscript annotations) for The Pier, novel by Heppenstall

Biography or history

(John) Rayner Heppenstall (1911-1981), the novelist, poet, critic, BBC producer, and criminal historian, was born in Lockwood, Huddersfield, on 27 July 1911 and educated at Huddersfield College and Leeds University, where he graduated in Modern Languages in 1932, and obtained a Diploma in Education in 1933. After a brief period teaching in Dagenham, he moved to London to start a career as a freelance writer and critic. Here he met many other writers and wrote most of his published poetry before the outbreak of the Second World War. After war service in Yorkshire and Northern Ireland, he joined the BBC as a features writer and drama producer, mainly for the Third Programme. Most of his novels were written during this period. In 1967 he became a freelance writer again and moved with his wife, Margaret, to Deal, Kent in 1974. Here he translated from French, wrote further novels, and developed an interest in criminal history. He died on 23 May 1981. His journal, which he had kept for many
years, was edited after his death by Jonathan Goodman and published as 'The Master Eccentric' in 1986.

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