Redgrove Papers
Scope and Contents
Papers of the poet Peter Redgrove, including working notebooks and correspondence. The bulk of the collection consists of Redgrove's correspondence (some 10,500 letters) during the period 1970 to 1989, including correspondence with many significant figures in the world of contemporary literature, together with his complete working papers recording the composition of his work during this period, drafts of several literary works, and copies of interviews and reviews.
A small separate collection (previous ref: 255), of around 90 letters and other documents dating largely from the 1960s, comprises mainly letters and some drafts of poems sent to Redgrove principally by other poets, some of them associated with "The Group", and includes communications from Martin Bell, Philip Callow, Philip Hobsbaum, David Holbrook, P.J. Kavanagh, James Kirkup, Arthur Koestler, Allen Lane, Edward Lucie-Smith, Alan Marshfield, Peter Porter, M.L. Rosenthal, D.M. Thomas and Donald Wolfit.
A second small separate collection (previous ref: 392) consists of four books of Peter Redgrove´s poetry, 22 letters and several duplicated copies of poems by Peter Redgrove, some with revisions. This material was donated by Dennis Creffield, Painting Fellow and friend of Redgrove at the University of Leeds, whose wife, Dilly, fell in love with Redgrove and became the inspiration for some of his most memorable poems.
The collection also includes material donated by Professor Neil Roberts (previous ref: 411) on completion of research for his biography of Peter Redgrove, and includes letters, pamphlets, typescripts and reviews dating from 1960 to 2002.
The main collection of the Redgrove Papers was the subject of a HEFCE Follett Award in 1995, which resulted in a searchable database. For a link to this database and for further details of the collection please see the listings in the external documents section below.
Dates
- Creation: 1952 - 2002
Creator
- Redgrove, Peter, 1932 - 2003 (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
Available by appointment. Certain documents are restricted.
Copyright
Penelope Shuttle (for Peter Redgrove’s own work)
Biographical / Historical
Peter Redgrove (2nd January 1932 - 16 June 2003) was educated at Taunton School and Queens' College Cambridge, where he was a founder-member of "The Group", an association of poets originating in Cambridge in 1952 which lasted as a formal grouping into the 1960s. From 1954 to 1961 he worked as a scientific journalist and editor, receiving in 1961 a Fulbright Award as Visiting Poet to Buffalo University, N.Y. From 1962 to 1965 he was Gregory Fellow in Poetry at Leeds University, from 1966 to 1983 Resident Author and Senior Lecturer in Complementary Studies, Falmouth School of Art, and from 1974 to 1975 O'Connor Professor of Literature at Colgate University, N.Y. After that he worked as a freelance writer and broadcaster. As well as the poetry for which he is best known, Redgrove wrote plays (several of which have been broadcast), and novels. His work won him many literary prizes and awards, including the Queen's Medal for Poetry in 1996.
Redgrove trained as a Jungian analyst, and regarded creative, psychological and scientific work as aspects of the same continuum, and the creative process itself as evolutionary. Dreams and the unconscious were viewed as essential features of human existence. His chief interest, and the theme of his work, was the way in which a creative and imaginative response can be the natural and life-giving reaction to everyday existence. One example of the psychological element in his creative work is The Wise Wound, a study of the significant but "rejected" menstrual element of the human fertility cycle, written, as have been other works, in collaboration with his wife and partner Penelope Shuttle, a creative author in her own right. Peter Redgrove died in June 2003.
Extent
171 Box(es)
Language of Materials
English
Previous Reference Codes
171, 255, 392, 411
Custodial History
Purchased 1992 (171) and 2001 (255). Donated 2009 (392) and 2011 (411)
Bibliography
Topical
- Description rules
- International Standard for Archival Description - General
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Special Collections and Archives Repository
Western Bank Library
University of Sheffield
Western Bank
Sheffield South Yorkshire S10 2TN United Kingdom
+44 (0) 114 222 7299
lib-special@sheffield.ac.uk