COLLECTION DESCRIPTION
Manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, printed material, graphics, and bound manuscripts by, to, or about Wyndham Lewis, covering all aspects of his career and life. Includes one of two known proof copies of his novel The Roaring Queen, which was withdrawn before publication; unpublished novels, short stories, essays, and notebooks; and manuscripts and notes for Lewis's published books The Apes of God, Self Condemned, The Human Age (including Childermass, Malign Fiesta, Monstre Gai, and a synopsis of the projected fourth volume which Lewis never wrote), Mrs. Duke's Millions, The Red Priest, Rotting Hill, Rude Assignment, and The Writer and the Absolute. Also included are diaries of Lewis's wife, G. Anne Hoskyns Lewis, from 1953-1967, and Civil War reminiscences of his father, Charles Edward Lewis.
Letters include correspondence with Ezra Pound, and transcriptions of letters between Lewis and his mother while he was at the front during World War I; letters from members of his father Charles Edward Lewis's family, dating back to the 1870's, which describe life in upstate New York and Ontario; and many letters between Wyndham Lewis and other writers and publishers. Correspondents include Richard Aldington, Michael Ayrton, Lewis's lover Iris Barry, Clive Bell, Roy Campbell, Lord Kenneth Clark, T.S. Eliot, Roger Fry, Stuart Gilbert, Geoffrey Grigson, Ernest Hemingway, R.D. Jameson, Augustus John, Hugh Kenner, Charles Edward Lewis, Wyndham Lewis's mother Anne Stuart Lewis, his wife G. Anne Hoskyns Lewis, Archibald MacLeish, Marshall McLuhan, Naomi Mitchison, T. Sturge Moore (photocopies), Frederick Morgan, Dorothy Pound, Ezra Pound, C.H. Prentice, I.A. Richards, Sir John Rothenstein; Edith, Osbert, and Sacheverell Sitwell; Stephen Spender, Julian Symons, Tambimuttu, Allen Tate, H.G. Wells, and W.B. Yeats. The collection also includes two letters from Lewis to James Joyce.
Dates
- 1877-1975.
Creator
- Lewis, Wyndham, 1882-1957. (Person)
- Aldington, Richard, 1892-1962. (Person)
- Ayrton, Michael, 1921-1975. (Person)
- Barry, Iris, 1895- (Person)
- Bell, Clive, 1881-1964. (Person)
- Campbell, Roy, 1901-1957. (Person)
- Clark, Kenneth, 1903-1983. (Person)
- Eliot, T. S. (Thomas Stearns), 1888-1965. (Person)
- Fry, Roger, 1866-1934. (Person)
- Gilbert, Stuart. (Person)
- Grigson, Geoffrey, 1905- (Person)
- Hemingway, Ernest, 1899-1961. (Person)
- Jameson, R. D. (Raymond De Loy), 1896-1959. (Person)
- John, Augustus, 1878-1961. (Person)
- Joyce, James, 1882-1941. (Person)
- Kenner, Hugh. (Person)
- Lewis, Anne Stuart. (Person)
- Lewis, Charles Edward. (Person)
- Lewis, G. Anne Hoskyns, 1900-1979. (Person)
- MacLeish, Archibald, 1892- (Person)
- McLuhan, Marshall, 1911-1980. (Person)
- Mitchison, Naomi, 1897-1999. (Person)
- Moore, T. Sturge (Thomas Sturge), 1870-1944. (Person)
- Morgan, Frederick, 1922-2004. (Person)
- Pound, Dorothy. (Person)
- Pound, Ezra, 1885-1972. (Person)
- Prentice, C. H. (Person)
- Richards, I. A. (Ivor Armstrong), 1893-1979. (Person)
- Rothenstein, John, Sir, 1901- (Person)
- Sitwell, Edith, 1887-1964. (Person)
- Sitwell, Osbert, 1892-1969. (Person)
- Sitwell, Sacheverell, 1897- (Person)
- Spender, Stephen, 1909-1995. (Person)
- Symons, Julian, 1912-1994. (Person)
- Tambimuttu, 1915-1983. (Person)
- Tate, Allen, 1899-1979. (Person)
- Wells, H. G. (Herbert George), 1866-1946. (Person)
- Yeats, W. B. (William Butler), 1865-1939. (Person)
Language of Materials
Collection material in English
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Wyndham Lewis was an artist, novelist, and critic, who was born in Canada but lived for many years in England. He was a leader of the Vorticist movement.
Extent
43.7 cubic feet. (43.7 cubic feet.)
Abstract
Manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, printed material, graphics, and bound manuscripts by, to, or about Wyndham Lewis, covering all aspects of his career and life. Includes one of two known proof copies of his novel The Roaring Queen, which was withdrawn before publication; unpublished novels, short stories, essays, and notebooks; and manuscripts and notes for several of Lewis's published books. Also included are diaries of Lewis's wife, G. Anne Hoskyns Lewis, from 1953-1967, and Civil War reminiscences of his father, Charles Edward Lewis.
COLLECTION ARRANGEMENT
Manuscripts by Lewis are arranged alphabetically by title; G. Anne Hoskyns Lewis's letters alphabetically by correspondent; documents, alphabetically by the person concerned; letters by Lewis, chronologically; letters by others, alphabetically by writer; photographs of others, alphabetically by name of photograph's subject.
SERIES LIST
- <ref target="s5ss1">Graphic Material</ref>
- Box 156
- <ref target="s5ss2">Printed Items by Lewis</ref>
- Boxes 159-162
- <ref target="s5ss3">Printed Items by Others</ref>
- Boxes 163-165
OTHER GUIDES TO THE COLLECTION
A card catalogue is available. Link to a copy of the published card catalogue. (9MB PDF)
PROVENANCE
The core of the collection was purchased in 1959 with funds provided by William G. Mennen; more material was purchased from Lewis's widow in 1975.
Physical Description
Manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, printed material, graphics.
General
- Contact Information:
- Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections 2B Carl A. Kroch Library Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 255-3530 Fax: (607) 255-9524 rareref@cornell.edu http://rmc.library.cornell.edu
- Date completed:
- November 1997
- EAD encoding:
- Mireille Lee, July 2000; Lucy Burgess, January-August 2008,
- Date modified:
- Kristen Reichenbach, August 2018
- American literature -- 20th century.
- Authors and publishers -- England.
- Authors, American -- Relations with women.
- Authors, American.
- Authors, Canadian -- Relations with women.
- Authors, Canadian.
- Authors, English -- Relations with women.
- Authors, English.
- Authorship.
- Diaries.
- Domestic relations -- England.
- Eliot, T. S. (Thomas Stearns), 1888-1965.
- England -- Intellectual life -- 20th century.
- English literature -- 20th century.
- Graphic arts -- England -- History.
- Graphic arts -- United States -- History.
- Lewis, Anne Stuart.
- Lewis, Charles Edward.
- Lewis, G. Anne Hoskyns.
- Lewis, Wyndham, 1882-1957.
- Modernism (Literature).
- New York (State) -- Description and travel.
- New York (State) -- Social conditions -- History.
- Ontario (Canada) -- Description and travel.
- Ontario (Canada) -- Social conditions -- History.
- Photographs.
- Portraits.
- Pound, Ezra, 1885-1972.
- United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives.
- United States -- Intellectual life -- 20th century.
- Women -- Diaries.
- World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives.
- Status
- Completed
- Date
- July 2000
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- ENG
Repository Details
Part of the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections Repository
2B Carl A. Kroch Library
Cornell University
Ithaca NY 14853
607-255-3530
607-255-9524 (Fax)
rareref@cornell.edu