Department of Special Collections and University Archives
McFarlin Library. University of Tulsa.  2933 E. 6th St.  Tulsa, OK.  74104-3123 (OKT - OkTU)

Len Weaver collection of Siegfried Sassoon

Collection   1981-001

Dates:  1919-1955.

Extent:  (2 boxes).

Level of Description:  Item level.

Name of creator(s): Len Weaver.

Date of creation:  Undetermined.

Scope and Content:   The Siegfried Sassoon collection is organized into 3 series:

Series 1: Correspondence consists of 17 handwritten letters (dating from 1931-1934) between Sassoon and Thomas Balston of Gerald Duckworth & Co., Ltd., Morchard Bishop, Raymond Mortimer, and Arthur Waley.

Series 2 consists of 8 individual handwritten poems, a galley proof of This Glib Garland.  A Pseudo-Sequence. (1931) and autograph mock-up of preliminary pages; autograph drafts of poems, autograph mock-up, and proof copy of Poems by Pinchbeck Lyre. (1931).

Series 3 consists of a 1920 studio portrait of Sassoon inscribed by him to J.B. Pond; two small photos of SS; a photo of Sassoon and wife, Hester; group photo of the Heytesbury Cricket Club, 1935, featuring Sassoon and wife, Hester; and a photo of Sassoon's Wiltshire home, Haus Heytesbury.

Administrative/Biographical History: 

Access and Copyright:

Language and Scripts:  English.

Finding aid/Inventory:  Finding aid is online.

Provenance/Source of Acquisition:   Purchased from Bertram Rota, 1985, 1986.

Date(s) of description:   Milissa Burkart, Mar 1994.

Access Points:

Subject Headings 

 
Personal names 

Corporate names

Places
 

Inventory

Duckworth & Co., Ltd., Gerald (Thomas Balston) to Sassoon

4 Mar 1931. "Here are 2 sets of proofs of the MS...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

24 March [1931].  "Here are page proofs. Please let me have one copy back corrected...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

23 Apr [1931].  "Here is a complete copy which I hope you'll find all right...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

30 Apr 1931.  "I'm glad you like its appearance...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

6 May 1931. "I've talked with Edith about [the] people we should send copies to, but without much result...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

18 May [1931].  "We published on Friday...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

Typed note enclosed with the following letters reads:

The very interesting letter of 1940 came about because I wrote to tell him I had been reading with much admiration his Sherston Memoirs at the time of the fall of France. The others, save the last, are all in connection with a series of interviews I was doing at the time for John O'London's Weekly. (The one of Sassoon was printed in their issue of September 10th, 1954.) Thereafter, though he duly sent me inscribed copies of his privately printed poems as they came out, there was only one more letter (no. 8) which was enclosed with The Tasking (1954).

1 Sept 1940.  "I ought to have replied sooner to your very pleasant letter. I think you are right about the Sherston Memoirs...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

26 Feb 1954.  "My existence here is so isolated from the literary scene (and I so seldom get a mention nowadays) that your suggested 'interview' has put me in quite a mental twitter!...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

30 Apr 1954.  "I am getting away for 2 or 3 weeks on Monday after living here solidly for some months...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

5 May 1954.  "I shall be returning home on May 21st, so you might be able to arrange a visit to Haytesbury--...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

14 May 1954. "Either May 25th or 26th would suit me...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

27 May 1954.  "I enclose the photographs--1915 and 1947...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

31 May 1954.  "You have done me proud--I fully realise the difficulty of providing the sort of article needed for the occasion...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

9 Jan 1955.  (Enclosed with The Tasking)  Don't allow these exercises of an inquiring spirit to depress you!...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

Mortimer, Raymond to Sassoon

13 May 1931.  "It was extraordinarily kind of you to send me Pinchbeck Lyre [and] Poems...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s with envelope.

 22 Oct 1919.  "Thanks for your letter. I have done very little writing lately and have nothing to send you...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s with 2 handwritten poems, "Fancy Dress," and "Miracles," attached, 1p each.

Waley, Arthur to Sassoon

24 May.  "Thank you very much for asking Balston [Thomas Balston, Gerald Duckworth & Co., Ltd.) to send me your parodies of Humbug...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

"Barras." (See "Three Sonnets by Humbert Wolfe")

"The Celestial Asylum."  Pencilled  poem with handwritten revisions, 1p.

"Cheapside." Pencilled poem, 1p.

"Epitaphs on Aitcher."  c1932.  Handwritten poem in ink with handwritten revisions, in 3 parts, "Hitler," "Hindenburg," "Hoover," and signed P. Lyre, 1p.

"Fancy Dress." (See Series 1: Shorter, Mr.)

"Heartbreak Nest."   Handwritten draft of a poem in ink. (See "Epitaphs on Aitcher")

"I'll go no more to Maiden Vale...."  11 Jan 1929.  Pencilled poem with handwritten revision, 1p.

"Josephine." (See "Three Sonnets by Humbert Wolfe")

"Posters."  Pencilled poem with handwritten revisions, 1p.

"Miracles."  (See Series 1: Shorter, Mr.)

"Napoleon."  (See "Three Sonnets by Humbert Wolfe")

Handwritten mock up in ink of title page, preliminary pages, and table of contents, with pencilled revisions.

Galley proof.

Poems.   By Pinchbeck Lyre. 1931.

"Coda." Pencilled poem with handwritten revisions in green ink, 1p.

"Will There Be Ever?"  Handwritten poem in green ink with handwritten revisions, 1p; unidentified pencilled poem on verso. (See also Hand-bound book)

Handwritten mock-up in ink, with pencilled notes.

Studio portrait of Sassoon inscribed: "To J.B. Pond. with all good wishes from Siegfried Sassoon. New York. August 4th, 1920."

Two small photos of Sassoon.

Photo of Sassoon with wife, Hester.

Group photo of the Heytesbury Cricket Club, 1935, featuring Sassoon and wife, Hester.

Photo of Sassoon's Wiltshire home, Haus Heytesbury.