Elizabeth Gaskell manuscripts and correspondence
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This item may not be available for use as the collection is currently being processed by the Special Collections team. See the Access and usage section below for further details.Details
Type of record: Archive
Title: Elizabeth Gaskell manuscripts and correspondence
Classmark: BC MS 19c Gaskell
Creator(s): Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn (1810-1865)()
Date(s): 1757-1914
Language: English
Size and medium: 20 vols., 5 boxes, 3 envelopes; manuscript, typescript, printed and photographs.
Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/8726
Collection group(s): English Literature
Description
A significant collection of material relating to Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (ECG). The collection includes a nearly complete manuscript draft for ECG's novel 'Sylvia's Lovers', several manuscript fragments, a substantial series of letters written by ECG, with copies of some sent to her, family history documents and a large series of research material.
The collection is arranged by document type, and listed to item level where possible, with individual letters having separate descriptions.
Much of the material in the collection has previously been published. Where publication is known, details are given in the catalogue description.
Biography or history
Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865), novelist and short-story writer. For fuller details of her life and achievements see the 'Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'.
Provenance
The collection is not a true archive, but has been gathered over decades from various sources.
ECG material formed part of the original Brotherton Collection with the acquisition of material via Clement Shorter in the early 1920s. Shorter had edited the 1899 edition of ECG’s ‘Life of Charlotte Bronte’, and privately printed several of her unpublished manuscripts (see (1927) The Late Mr. Clement K. Shorter, Brontë Society Transactions, 7:2, 104-106). This acquisition included Shorter’s research material, transcriptions and some letters.
Special Collections continued to acquire ECG letters and manuscripts at sale, with perhaps the most substantial acquisition being the manuscript of Sylvia’s Lovers, acquired via Christie’s in 1986.
The collection has, at various points, benefited from deposits made by members of the Gaskell family. The largest deposit was made by Mrs Elizabeth Rosemary Trevor Dabbs in 1993 and included ECG’s manuscript diary, over fifty letters and manuscript fragments, copies of ECG’s novels previously belonging to Marianne Holland, and material documenting the history of the Gaskell and Holland families (this material was returned to the current representative of the Gaskell family in 2020) A further deposit of family history material was made by Jon Swinton and Portia Holland in 1995.
Depositors are acknowledged at file and series level where appropriate.
System of arrangement
The BC MS 19c Gaskell catalogue is based on an historic inventory. The arrangement of material does not necessarily represent the original order of the archive and it is considered partly processed by an archivist. When making requests to consult, please be aware that there may be discrepancies between description and physical arrangement. The retrievable unit for this collection is file level.
Access and usage
Access
Access to this material is unrestricted.