Leeds lives

Sir Michael Sadler (1861-1943)

In our catalogue: Michael Sadler Archive | The view from 41 Headingley Lane | Whitby Church | Preclarissimus liber elementorum Euclidis perspicacissimi, in artem geometrie incipit qua[m] foelicissime

Vice-Chancellor of the University, 1911-1923

Honorary DLitt, 1924

When Michael Sadler, born in Barnsley, returned to Yorkshire in 1911 to take the post of Vice-Chancellor at the University of Leeds, he had already begun to develop the diverse artistic interests that would make him a notable figure in the history of modern art in Britain. His passionate desire to spread the benefits of a progressive education had been established earlier in his career, at Oxford and Manchester Universities, and Leeds offered Sadler the ideal opportunity to put his principles into practice, at a time when the former Yorkshire College numbered 980 students.

Sadler felt that a student's education was greatly enhanced by a cultured and harmonious environment. He set about creating such an environment through the public display of pictures from his collection. In addition to promoting the physical expansion of the University campus, Sadler encouraged a growth in the curriculum, being instrumental in establishing a chair in Russian Language and Literature in 1916.

He introduced a series of public events on a wide variety of topics, many arts-related, including talks on literature, daytime music recitals and a Saturday concert series. His desire to increase contact between the University and the wider community led him to organise an open day. The event was pioneered in 1923 and attracted between 10,000 and 12,000 visitors.

Sadler was seconded during his time at Leeds to head a commission to investigate the state of Indian education, and in 1919 was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India (KCSI). After leaving Leeds in 1923, Sadler served as Master of University College, Oxford, until 1934. He continued to pursue his interests, writing on the interrelationships between art, education and society, up until his death in 1943.

The generous gift of artworks from his own collection, which he gave to the University in 1923, forms the basis of today's University art collection. His legacy also includes the commission of the Eric Gill war memorial sculpture, which remains on campus. The Sadler papers held in Special Collections and the University Archive further document his time in Leeds. The papers illustrate some of the many aspects of his forward-thinking contribution to the city's cultural life, such as his involvement with the Leeds Arts Club and his support for local artists, notably Jacob Kramer.

Arthur Ransome (1884-1967)

In our catalogue: Arthur Ransome (Brotherton Collection) | Arthur Ransome Archive

Yorkshire College student, 1901

Honorary DLitt, 1952

Arthur Ransome, born in Headingley, was an unwilling student at the Yorkshire College, which became the University of Leeds in 1904. An academic failure at boarding school, he agreed to study science at the college to please his father Cyril Ransome, who was its Professor of History and English.

A chance event in the college library decided Ransome's whole future. Searching the shelves for a book on magnetism, he was attracted instead by a biography of the writer and artist William Morris. He was so inspired by what he read, he decided there and then to become a writer and, despite his father's worries, left for London in 1901. The actual book that changed his life, The life of William Morris by J W Mackail, is still in the University Library.

Ransome survived as a bohemian journalist and writer for 12 years, developing an interest in folk stories. In 1913 he left an unhappy marriage to go to Russia to gather folk tales, learning the language to translate them. This led to his appointment as a Russian correspondent for the Daily News in the lead up to the Russian Revolution. He got to know the leading Bolsheviks, including Lenin, and fell in love with Evgenia Shelepina, Trotsky's secretary.

As the work of an Englishman, Ransome's newspaper reports and other writings were unusually sympathetic to the Revolution. However, around 80 years later it was revealed that he had secretly been acting as a British intelligence agent, indirectly supporting opposition to the Revolution.

In the 1920s, Ransome grew tired of travelling and returned to England with Evgenia, determined to write a book for children and enjoy his sailing and fishing. Settled in a Lake District cottage, he wrote Swallows and Amazons, the book which made his reputation. It has never been out of print since publication in 1930 and is the first of a dozen hugely successful novels featuring four children and their sailing adventures.

Ransome received many honours for his writing, including an honorary doctorate in 1952 from the University of Leeds, which he'd left without a degree. He wrote in his diary: "Every man has a lurking wish to be thought considerable in his native place."

Ransome's archive was presented to Leeds University Library in the 1970s. It gives unique insights into Edwardian literary London, the Russian Revolution, Ransome's sailing and fishing exploits, and some of the best loved of all children's books.

Bonamy Dobrée (1891-1974)

In our catalogue: Bonamy Dobrée Archive | Bonamy Dobrée (Brotherton Collection)

Professor of English Literature, 1936-1955

In 20 years as Professor of English Literature, Dobrée had a profound effect on the University's cultural life, above all by creating an outstanding School of English where his influence is still felt today. Many well-known individuals associated with the University, particularly writers, were originally brought to Leeds by the inspirational Dobrée.

Born into a banking family from the Channel Islands, Dobrée's Edwardian education prepared him for an army career, which he began in 1910. He resigned in 1913 to marry an artist, travelling with her around Italy and France (in a horse-drawn caravan) until the outbreak of World War I. He then re-enlisted, serving with distinction as a young major. His unusual combination of brisk military efficiency with an artistic temperament stayed central to his life.

After a brief period as a Cambridge student, private means allowed Dobrée to live as an independent scholar-critic from 1921 until the mid-1930s, specialising in 18th-century literature. He enjoyed an exotic interlude as an English professor in Cairo from 1926 to 1929. Dobreé seemed to know all of his literary contemporaries - his list of contacts included Pound, Lawrence, and the Bloomsbury Group - and he formed close friendships with TS Eliot and Herbert Read.

When Dobrée was appointed Professor at Leeds, his London friends were astonished by his move to the north, but he was totally committed to the role. Though distracted by another war - he was Colonel in charge of the Leeds Officers' Training Corps - he immersed himself in University life.

Under Dobrée's leadership, Leeds pioneered the academic study of both American and Commonwealth (postcolonial) literature in UK universities. He advocated the establishment of a Fine Art department, persuading his friend Peter Gregory to fund the groundbreaking Gregory Fellowships for poets and artists. Dobrée personally selected the poets with Eliot and Read. He brought poets Vernon Scannell, Jon Silkin and James Simmons to Leeds as unconventional students, mentored Richard Hoggart and appointed Geoffrey Hill as an exceptionally young lecturer. He encouraged them all until his death.

Dobrée's archive was given to the Library by his daughter Georgina in 1988. At its heart are hundreds of letters he received from his great contemporaries. The collection spans many decades - from before, during and after Dobrée's time at Leeds.

Sir Herbert Read (1893-1968)

In our catalogue: Herbert Read Archive | Herbert Read Library (Brotherton Collection)

Student, 1912-1915

Honorary DLitt, 1932

The son of a farmer in the Yorkshire dales, Herbert Read left school at 16 and worked as a clerk in Leeds until a legacy enabled him to enrol at the University. He studied law and economics, while his passion for art and literature flourished at the Leeds Arts Club. He went straight from the University to fight in World War I, emerging in 1918 as a decorated hero (DSO, MC), committed pacifist and published poet.

His reputation as a poet and critic grew in post-war London, and he made lifelong friendships with leading writers, above all TS Eliot. As a curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, he published widely, on literature, art history and the contemporary visual arts.

Read briefly became Professor of Fine Art at Edinburgh University from 1931 to 1933, but soon returned to London, championing the work of young artists Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth (both from Yorkshire) and Ben Nicholson.

Read's interests extended beyond British Modernism to contemporary European and Scandinavian art, of which he was the leading advocate and interpreter in Britain. He was a personal friend of Picasso, Man Ray and Schwitters, adviser to Peggy Guggenheim as collector, and promoted Surrealism as an expression of individuality. He wrote influential works on the role of art in education, industry and society, co-founding the Institute of Contemporary Arts. Despite regarding himself as an anarchist, he accepted a knighthood in 1953.

Read's Yorkshire origins stayed with him and he made his family home at Stonegrave House, near York. He renewed his involvement with the University in the 1950s by helping to establish the Gregory Fellowships, forming the distinguished appointing committee with his friends TS Eliot and Henry Moore.

Read shaped the British art scene profoundly from the 1930s to the 1960s. His unassuming manner belied his tireless energy and progressive thinking. He died at Stonegrave, surrounded by books and his friends' artwork.

Our acquisition of Read's 14,000-volume library from his family in 1996 was generously supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. It includes many items with unique personal associations and numerous rarities. Part of his personal archive went to a Canadian library in the 1960s, but he retained the items that meant most to him, such as the manuscript of his only novel The Green Child. All this material is now in Leeds University Library.

Lord Boyle of Handsworth (1923-1981)

In our catalogue: Edward Charles Gurney Boyle correspondence and papers

Vice-Chancellor of the University, 1970-1981

Honorary LLD, 1965

Edward Boyle, the son of a distinguished barrister, was educated at Eton and Oxford. Even as a schoolboy and student, his good judgement, breadth of knowledge, public-speaking prowess and considerate manner set him apart. To his contemporaries, he seemed much older and wiser than his years.

Boyle became Conservative MP for Handsworth, Birmingham, aged only 27. He quickly rose through the party ranks, holding various junior offices (notably in economic affairs), reaching the peak of his political career as Minister of Education from 1962 to 1964. He firmly believed in higher education, presiding over the rapid expansion of the university sector, and showing a far greater commitment to comprehensive schooling than was typical in his party at the time. His views on race relations and immigration were also well to the left of those of many Conservative colleagues, bringing him into conflict with his constituents, particularly after Enoch Powell delivered his notorious "Rivers of Blood" speech in Birmingham in 1968.

Disenchanted with party politics, Boyle moved to the House of Lords and became Vice-Chancellor at the University of Leeds in 1970. His main aims for the University were to establish "Teaching in an atmosphere of research", to this day a concept central to the University's vision, and to pursue research excellence by attracting the finest academic staff. His success was recognised when he was elected to chair the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals from 1977 to 1979, effectively making him the national leader and spokesman of the university sector.

His unmistakable bulky figure and shuffling walk belied his energy. He attracted enormous affection in the University as well as respect. At a time of national student unrest, student radicals found him inconveniently impossible to dislike. When urgent economies were required, he insisted on giving up his official car, travelling by bus instead and chatting with student passengers.

To universal regret, he rapidly succumbed to cancer in his late fifties, continuing to immerse himself in University business to the last.

Lord Boyle's papers, his bequest to the Library, are a major resource for insights into British politics and society in the 1960s and 1970s. They are equally revealing about the history of the University and the development of higher education generally. They also reflect the extraordinary range of Boyle's cultural and intellectual interests and activities, particularly his passion for music.

He is more openly remembered in the naming of our Edward Boyle Library, a pioneering library designed for the students to whom he was so committed.

Zygmunt Bauman (1925-2017)

Professor of Sociology, 1972-1990

Emeritus Professor, 2004

Zygmunt Bauman is internationally celebrated as one of the greatest social thinkers of our times. Though a Professor of Sociology (and later, Emeritus), his work transcended conventional disciplinary boundaries, embracing social and political theory, philosophy, ethics, media/communications studies, cultural studies, psychology and theology. As the author of dozens of highly original books and just as many academic papers, his influence and intellectual energy were phenomenal.

Bauman's life before Leeds was lived through the great events of mid-20th-century Europe. Born to non-practising Polish-Jewish parents in provincial Poznań, he and his parents escaped to the Soviet Union in 1939 following the Nazi invasion of Poland. He served in the Polish division of the Red Army, being awarded the Military Cross of Valour in 1945. Still enlisted, he studied at Warsaw University and married in 1948 - Bauman had noted the irony that he owed both his education and his marriage to the war. His personal insights into the Holocaust came from his beloved wife Janina, who had survived the war in hiding, losing most of her family.

Anti-Semitism impeded Bauman's academic progress and led to his discharge from the Army in 1954. These factors, when added to his disillusionment with communism in Poland, if not with communism itself, formed his decision to leave Poland in 1968. His first destination was Israel but, never a Zionist, he soon moved on - to his Chair at Leeds in 1972.

By then Bauman could have chosen an eminent academic position anywhere, but Leeds suited him. It offered a stable place to think, write and teach as he wished with congenial colleagues, devoted family and friends, and able students. Astonishingly, since his "retirement" in 1990, he had published some 40 substantial books and lectured worldwide. He was awarded the European Amalfi Prize for Sociology (1992), the Theodor W Adorno Award (1998) and the Prince of Asturias Award (2010).

The University created The Bauman Institute in his honour in 2010, dedicated to the study of his concerns - consumerism, globalization, ethics, power, and the analysis of modernity. The Library is developing a unique Zygmunt Bauman Archive which he was generously assisting with until his death.

Tony Harrison (born 1937)

In our catalogue: Tony Harrison Archive | Correspondence from Tony Harrison to Harry Thomas

Student, 1955-1960

Honorary DLitt, 2004

A picture by the Leeds artist Liz Smith hangs on Tony Harrison's kitchen wall. It shows him as a young schoolboy looking down from his bedroom window at a group of friends who are urging him to come out to play. Tony, wearing a poet's laurel wreath, refuses - homework must come first. On the far horizon we can see Leeds University's Parkinson tower, Tony's boyhood goal.

Grasping the post-war educational opportunities available to a working-class boy from a supportive but inarticulate family in Beeston, Leeds, Harrison won scholarships to Leeds Grammar School and then to the University of Leeds, where he studied Classics and Linguistics. His close University friends were the Nigerian Wole Soyinka (later the first African to win the Nobel Prize in Literature) and Barry Cryer (later a great professional comedian). If he missed his last bus home to Beeston, Harrison stayed near the University in Blenheim Square with another student poet, James Simmonds.

Harrison left the University determined to live by his writing. He briefly supported himself with teaching posts and writers' fellowships, but was soon able to make a full-time career from poetry.

His first collection of poems, published in 1970, was called The Loiners, a traditional name for the people of Leeds. A major theme of Harrison's poetry over the next 40 years - the contrast between his class background and the cultural world opened up to him by education - emerged in this first book. "I wanted to write the poetry that people like my parents would respond to."

Harrison's verse plays have been produced at the National Theatre and throughout the world. Many of them are colloquial Northern versions of classics by writers such as Sophocles, Euripides, Racine, and Molière. His television films include Black daisies for the bride, a meditation on Alzheimer's disease set in a hospital near Leeds, and the controversial v, set in his parents' vandalised Leeds graveyard.

Harrison's work has won many prizes: the latest, the European Prize for Literature, 2010, shows his international reputation as one of Britain's greatest living writers.

Special Collections holds Harrison's massive - and growing - literary archive. The central feature is the series of dozens of notebooks going back to his student days, not only giving unique insight into the complex evolution of his works, but vividly reflecting his life through inserted personal notes, photographs, travel tickets, wine bottle labels...

Lord Bragg of Wigton (born 1939)

In our catalogue: Melvyn Bragg Archive | Melvyn Bragg | South Bank Show Production Archive

Chancellor of the University, 1999-2017

Honorary DLitt, 2004

Writer and broadcaster Melvyn Bragg is the first of the University's Chancellors not to have been a member of the royal family or a hereditary peer. It is a mark of his conspicuous success in the role that, having completed his initial term of office, he has been persuaded to continue as Chancellor for several more years.

His promotion of education in the UK, particularly at the University of Leeds, reflects the importance of educational opportunity in his own life. Modestly raised in the market town of Wigton, Cumbria, he attended local schools before taking a place at Wadham College, Oxford, as one of many beneficiaries of the Butler Education Act of 1944. Had he been born a few years earlier, it is very unlikely that he, as a working-class Cumbrian boy, would have been able to progress to Oxford.

As a student he began to pursue many cultural interests, already showing the energy and breadth of curiosity that have characterised his later life. Bragg read Modern History as an undergraduate, but was set on a career as an author of literature. He would come to succeed in his aims, becoming a playwright, a biographer and above all a novelist.

Bragg joined the BBC as a trainee in 1961, judging that broadcasting would be compatible with writing. His determination to succeed in both careers led to his practice of rising early to write before going out to his day job. Bragg's broadcasting work has flourished for over 50 years, most notably with The South Bank Show and In Our Time, both deeply educational in purpose. He has also undertaken prominent roles with charities and cultural organisations, becoming an active, questioning Labour life peer in 1998.

Throughout a phenomenal life in the media and public service, Melvyn Bragg has pursued his second career - he would say first - as a writer for stage and film, of non-fiction and above all of 20 novels imbued with his sense of national, regional and personal history.

In 2009 he gave his massive literary archive to the Library, a generous expression of his permanent commitment to this northern university.