RESEARCH LOCATES AND LISTS LITERARY MANUSCRIPTS
The Location
Register team in the
During this
recent survey, the Location Register team discovered one particularly important
collection:
the papers of Leslie Thomas (best known for The Virgin Soldiers, but a wide-ranging
author) in Southampton City Archives
Service.
The Location
Register project has been based in the
The
largest group of papers have been found to be in the public libraries of
Edinburgh, Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool, but smaller
collections of note have been found in public libraries as varied as those of
Hull, Bath, Battersea, Gloucester and Newport, and from Orkney Library to the
Cornish Studies Library in Redruth.
During its 22
years, the team have uncovered some striking collections in some surprise
locations, including the papers of Three
Men in a Boat author Jerome K Jerome in Walsall Central Library, and the
papers of World War I poet and composer Ivor Gurney in
The
Laser Foundation is a trust founded in 2001, with its purpose being "to improve
library facilities available to the public". A Laser Foundation grant of £7600
enabled the Location Register team to re-survey the holdings of those public
libraries which had previously reported having literary papers amongst their
collections.
Dr
David Sutton, Director of Research Projects at the University Library, said:
"Although in quantitative terms most of the 'distributed national archive' of
literary manuscripts is to be found in national and university libraries, one of
the Location Register's greatest strengths is that it also reveals delightful
collections of modern literary papers in less expected locations, including many
public libraries and local museums."
The Location
Register has received many awards since its inception, notably from the
committees for the Besterman Medal (Highly Commended, 1988) and the McColvin
Medal (1995). In 2002 its director,
Dr David Sutton was awarded the Benson Medal for outstanding services to
literature by the Royal Society of Literature, and in February 2004 the
The
Location Register can now be consulted online at www.locationregister.com.
Tel: 0118 378 7388