The Lindsay Anderson Collection

 

Contact strip from If…. (1968) Photographs are copyright © University of Stirling Archives

“No film can be too personal…
Perfection is not an aim.
An attitude means a style.
A style means an attitude.”

Lindsay Anderson, Free Cinema Manifesto from the 1956 Free Cinema Programme

‘The Cinema Authorship of Lindsay Anderson’ is a three-year research project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, which will re-evaluate Lindsay Anderson's work and the established public and critical perception of the director. The principal aim is to investigate Anderson's claim to the status of authorship. This will be achieved primarily through the investigation of his private thoughts and his public statements about his work contained in the Lindsay Anderson Archive at the University of Stirling.

In order to allow full access to the Lindsay Anderson Archive the first step in the research project is the item level cataloguing of the correspondence and diaries. Over 10,300 items have now been catalogued using the CALM for Archives database and this will be available online for public access by September 2010.  The cataloguing and indexing of these records will enable researchers to study Anderson's private opinions through the correspondence and diaries and his public statements in articles, reviews he wrote, letters to the press and interviews.

 

Material & Correspondence from the Lindsay Anderson Archive. Lindsay Anderson’s leather jacket

 

The Archive is over 200 linear metres in size, comprising of over 150 archive boxes, over 2000 of Anderson’s books and over 700 video cassettes.  It contains a wealth of material including: Lindsay Anderson’s correspondence with friends, fans and critics; diaries; photographs from his films and theatre productions, both promotional stills and behind the scenes photographs; production notes for film and theatre; promotional material; scripts; office files including business correspondence and invitations to film festivals; press cuttings regarding his film, theatre and critical work; awards; and personal memorabilia.  There are also some slightly more unusual items in the collection for example, one of Anderson’s trademark leather jackets which is now in a display case and makes a great addition to our Lindsay Anderson touring exhibition.  The Collection also contains thousands of Anderson’s books – many of which contain his own annotations along with many dedications from the authors or subjects of the books. 

The Lindsay Anderson Archive is part of the film-related collections held at Stirling University which also include the John Grierson Archive and the Norman McLaren Archive. 

Stirling University Archive will have a new reading room in the recently refurbished University Library which will be opening on Monday 30th August.  To accompany the opening of the new reading room there will be an exhibition of material from the Lindsay Anderson Archive in the University Library. 

Lindsay Anderson directing The Singing Lesson, Warsaw, 1966

 

University of Stirling collections on the Archives Hub

Lindsay Anderson Collection
Papers of John Grierson, 1898-1972, documentary film producer

 

Related collections

Jocelyn Herbert Archive: Archive of Lindsay Anderson’s friend and colleague the theatre designer Jocelyn Herbert, housed at Wimbledon College of Art, London
David Storey Archive: Archive of Anderson’s friend and colleague, the author and playwright David Storey, housed at the University of York
British Library Theatre Archive Project: contains a number of Archives with material relating to Lindsay Anderson

 

Related websites

Lindsay Anderson Collection: home page for the University of Stirling Lindsay Anderson Collection
Special Collections Stirling University: home page detailing all the Archives and Special Collections held by the University of Stirling
Lindsay Anderson on Flickr: University of Stirling Flickr website containing images from the Lindsay Anderson Collection
Archives and Auteurs: blog by Kathryn Mackenzie, Research Assistant on ‘The Cinema Authorship of Lindsay Anderson’
Lindsay Anderson Memorial Foundation: Organisation which seeks to promote Lindsay Anderson’s memory and to foster the spirit he represents

 

Suggested reading

Links are provided to records on Copac for these items. Copac is a merged online catalogues of many major University, Specialist, and National Libraries in the UK and Ireland, including the British Library. For more information about accessing items see the FAQs on the Copac website.

Lindsay Andersaon and Paul Ryan (ed.), Never Apologise: the Collected Writings, (Plexus Publishing Ltd., 2004) ISBN: 978-0859653176 Records on Copac

Lindsay Anderson and Paul Sutton (ed.) The Diaries (Diaries, Letters and Essays), (Methuen Publishing Limited, 2004), ISBN: 978-0413773982 Records on Copac

Isabelle Gourdin-Sangouard, ‘The Cinema Authorship of Lindsay Anderson: Anderson's Directorial Practice’, Networking Knowledge: Journal of the MeCCSA Postgraduate Network, Vol. 3, No. 1. June 2010, ISSN 1755-9944

Isabelle Gourdin-Sangouard, ‘Creating Authorship? Lindsay Anderson and David Sherwin’s Collaboration on If… (1968)’, Journal of Screenwriting 1:1., pp. 131-148., Intellect Journals, January 2010, ISSN: 1759-7137

Erik Hedling, Lindsay Anderson, Maverick Film-Maker, (London, 1998) Records on Copac

John Izod, Karl Magee, Kathryn Mackenzie and Isabelle Gourdin-Sangouard, ‘What is there to smile at?’ Lindsay Anderson’s O Lucky Man! in Paul Newland (ed.) Don't Look Now: British Cinema in the 1970s (Bristol, Intellect Ltd., 2010) 215 - 227. ISBN 9781841503202 Records on Copac

John Izod, Karl Magee, Kathryn Mackenzie and Isabelle Gourdin-Sangouard, ‘Music/ Industry/ Politics: Alan Price’s roles in O Lucky Man!’ in Sue Harper and Laurel Forster (eds.) British Culture and Society in the 1970s: the Lost Decade (Newcastle upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars, 2010) 201-12. ISBN 978-1-4438-1734-9 Records on Copac

Gavin Lambert, Mainly About Lindsay Anderson, (London, 2000) Records on Copac

Kathryn Mackenzie and Karl Magee, ‘In Search of an Audience: Lindsay Anderson’s Britannia Hospital’ in Participations: Journal of Audience and Reception Studies, Volume 6, Issue 2, November 2009

Karl Magee,‘Hooray for Hollywood? The unmade films of Lindsay Anderson’ in D. North (ed.) Sights Unseen: Unfinished British Films (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008) Records on Copac

Karl Magee, ‘Private thoughts, public records? The publication of the Lindsay Anderson diaries,’ in A.C. Holland & K. Manning (eds.) Archives and Archivists (Dublin, Four Courts Press, 2006) Records on Copac

The DVD box set ‘Free cinema’ produced by Christopher Dupin features a number of Lindsay Anderson’s documentaries along with the original manifestoes, interviews with Free Cinema film makers, an illustrated booklet on Free Cinema and notes on all the films. Records on Copac

Lindsay Anderson and Richard Harris on the set of This Sporting Life (1963). Lindsay Anderson and Lillian Gish on the set of The Whales of August (1987)

Kathryn Mackenzie - Research Assistant, The Lindsay Anderson Collection, University of Stirling.