Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1946-2004 (Creation)
Level of description
File
Extent and medium
c. 535 items (1 large box)
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Michael Holroyd is a well-known biographer and writer. He was born 27 August 1935 in London to Basil Holroyd and his Swedish wife Ulla (née Hall). He received his education at Eton College and Maidenhead Public Library. In 1982 he married the writer Margaret Drabble and they live in London and Somerset. He was Chairman of the Society of Authors, 1973-1974, President of English PEN from 1985 to 1988, and Chairman of the Strachey Trust between 1990 and 1995. In 1988 he was awarded the Irish Life Arts Award and the CBE in 1989 for services to literature. A former member of the Arts Council he lectures around the world on behalf of the British Council and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. The universities of Ulster, Sheffield, Warwick, East Anglia and the London School of Economics have presented him with honorary degrees.
Michael Holroyd is the biographer of Hugh Kingsmill, Lytton Strachey, Augustus John and Bernard Shaw, and in 2002 a selection of his writings relating to biography and autobiography was published under the title Works on Paper: The Craft of Biography and Autobiography. The film 'Carrington' is based on Lytton Strachey and won awards at Cannes. His novel A Dog's Life was published in the USA in 1969 and in 1973 his volume of essays Unreceived Opinions was published. Michael Holroyd has also written various radio and television scripts. In 1999 his autobiography Basil Street Blues was published.
Name of creator
Biographical history
Name of creator
Biographical history
Name of creator
Biographical history
Name of creator
Biographical history
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Some four hundred and eighty-six letters and postcards, [1950s]-1978, from Edwin John, mainly in Paris, to his daughter Sara John; together with twelve from Sara to Edwin, 1964-1977.
Also included are nine miscellaneous letters to Sara John, 1965-1996, including one from Michael Holroyd; an exchange of letters between Sara John and Brian Sewell, October 2004, concerning Sewell's article on Augustus and Gwen John ('Feminists still haunt Augustus', Evening Standard, 1 October 2004, pp. 38-39); four letters from Edwin to his son Ben John, 1953; two letters from Edwin, 1946, 1973; five John family postcards, 1952-[?1964], from Ben John, Dorelia McNeill and Sara's mother Beatrice Dorothy John; and twelve scraps, postcards and other miscellaneous items, [n.d.].
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Letters of Edwin John to Sara John arranged chronologically at NLW.
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Generated finding aid
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
Title based on contents.
Alternative identifier(s)
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- John, Edwin -- Correspondence (Subject)
- John, Sara G. -- Correspondence. (Subject)