Graham Swift's archive acquired by the British Library
11 March 2009
Acclaimed novelist's manuscripts, correspondence and papers saved for nation
The British Library has acquired the archive of acclaimed novelist Graham Swift. The collection of 75 file boxes contains manuscripts, notes, revisions and proofs relating to all eight of his novels - including Waterland and the Booker Prize-winning Last Orders - his short story collection Learning to Swim and his recently published non-fiction collection Making an Elephant.
The collection dates back to Swift's early work from the 1970s, and even includes essays written at Cambridge University (on Shakespeare, Donne, Tolstoy, and Joyce) and a composition on Hamlet written at Dulwich College in the early 1960s (the school-boy essay is marked 'excellent', although a reference to T S Eliot is marked by his teacher as 'terribly snooty'!)
Listen now (MP3 file, 36 minutes, 14.49 MB)
Graham Swift talks with Head of Modern Literary Manuscripts Jamie Andrews about his thoughts on seeing his archive transferred to the national collections. He also discusses his newly-published collection of non-fiction Making an Elephant.
The archive includes professional correspondence with friends and colleagues including Andrew Motion, Kazuo Ishiguro, Pat Barker, Michael Ondaatje, Ted Hughes and Caryl Phillips. The Hughes letters include tips for fishing the River Torridge in Devon, together with Hughes's handwritten sketches marking 'fish traps' along the river; in one card dated early 1998, the late Poet Laureate records a lean year on the Torridge, remarking that he had no salmon in his freezer for the first time in 30 years. The archive also contains background material relating to the recently published collection, Making an Elephant, including notes and letters relating to Swift's mysterious quest to find the dissident Czech writer Jiri Wolf in the immediate aftermath of the Velvet Revolution.
This acquisition complements the British Library's existing collections of contemporary novelists' archives, and ensures that this treasure trove of research material, once catalogued, will be readily accessible to researchers through the Library's Reading Rooms at St Pancras.
Graham Swift has been at the forefront of British contemporary fiction since the early 1980s. He was named one of the 20 'Best of Young British Novelists' in 1983 and has been nominated for the Booker Prize twice (winning in 1996). As his archive reveals, he writes primarily in pen and ink, working through several different drafts of a novel, and only using a word processor when completing a final draft. Among the more unusual items in the archive is a tape recording of the answer phone messages he received on the night he won the Booker Prize, including messages from fellow authors congratulating him on his win.
£10,000 of the cost of the acquisition was generously funded by the Friends of the British Library. The total cost to purchase the archive, including cataloguing and conservation costs, was £110,000.
"The archive of Graham Swift is a major addition to our manuscript collections," said Jamie Andrews, Head of Modern Literary Manuscripts at the British Library. "His rich and well-worked notes and drafts will enable significant insights into Swift's way of working, while the correspondence and non-fiction work reveal much about his biography and position in relation to literary culture and academia.
"There are significant connections with archives the British Library already holds - particularly the recently acquired Ted Hughes archive. Hughes's letters to Swift record fishing trips they enjoyed together that Hughes himself describes in the fishing diaries in his own archive. In addition to the wonderful manuscripts, letters, scrapbooks, and tapes, we will also be using panoramic digital photography to record a 3-D simulation of Graham Swift's workspace, as part of our new process of 'enhanced curation'," he added.
Graham Swift said, "I'm delighted my archive will have a home not just in this country, but in the British Library in London. I can't think of where it could be better looked after, but as I'm a Londoner it's in every sense ideal. I shall always know my manuscripts are just up the road".
In line with other recently acquired literary archives, cataloguing will begin as soon as possible, and the material is expected to be made available through the Manuscripts Reading Room from the beginning of 2010.
For further information and images, please contact Ben Sanderson at the British Library Press Office
E: ben.sanderson@bl.uk
T: +44 (0)1937 546126 or T: +44 (0)78100 56848
Notes to editors:
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and one of the world's greatest research libraries. It provides world-class information services to the academic, business, research and scientific communities and offers unparalleled access to the world's largest and most comprehensive research collection. The Library's collection has developed over 250 years and exceeds 150 million separate items representing every age of written civilisation. It includes: books, journals, manuscripts, maps, stamps, music, patents, newspapers and sound recordings in all written and spoken languages. www.bl.uk
The British Library is a leading partner in the work of the UK Literary Heritage Group (UKLH), which is working to establish and take forward a national strategy for literary manuscripts and is campaigning for changes in the current tax laws to benefit living authors wanting to deposit their papers with UK libraries. The acquisition of the archive of Graham Swift follows the recent announcement of the British Library's securing of archives of the late Harold Pinter and Ted Hughes.
Graham Swift's first book of non-fiction, Making an Elephant, is out now in hardback. More information