Personal, literary, music and business papers of Anthony Burgess

The archive collection has been arranged into 10 sub-sections:

1) Literary papers and music written or adapted by Burgess, or by Burgess in collaboration with another author, including papers relating to translations of Burgess's works

2) Papers relating to adaptations of Burgess's works by another author

3) Journalism

4) Audio collection

5) Audio-visual collection

6) Photographic collection

7) Correspondence and statements with publishers and literary agents

8) Papers regarding Burgess's personal financial, medical and legal affairs

9) Printed ephemera

10) Original works by other authors sent to Burgess for review or comment

Although the majority of the records within the collection were created by, or belonged to Anthony Burgess, the collection also includes papers belonging to other individuals, particularly Burgess's widow, Liana, and son, Andrew Burgess-Wilson. For example, it contains items relating to Andrew Burgess-Wilson's varied life as an aspiring musician and chef, including a childhood diary, catering books and musical instruments, and also to Liana Burgess's work as an Italian translator and literary agent.

The original arrangement of Burgess's personal, literary, music, and business papers (if any existed) has been disrupted over time. Prior to creating this catalogue, records had been partially listed and arranged according to type or format, e.g. literary typescripts and manuscripts, audio, poetry, music scores, and translations. Records have subsequently been rearranged into the 10 sub-sections outlined above.

Where it appears different drafts of, for example, screenplays have become mixed up, an attempt has been made to restore the original order by identifying similarities in paper and typeface. Where such similarities exist, records have been grouped together, and a note made in the catalogue to indicate rearrangement has taken place.

As part of the cataloguing process, attempts have also been made to make a distinction between works by other authors that were sent to Burgess for general comment or information purposes, and those which formed a key part of Burgess's own work on a particular project. The former have been catalogued within AB/ARCH/B: Papers relating to adaptations of Anthony Burgess's works by another author, and AB/ARCH/J: Original works by other authors sent to Burgess for review or comment, and the latter have been catalogued among Burgess's own literary papers and music scores, AB/ARCH/A.

Open

Currently, we do not have the facility to play recordings made on vinyl or magnetic tape. However, a number of Burgess's lectures, which were originally recorded to magnetic tape, have been digitised, and may be made available to researchers upon application to the Archivist.

Records described as being in a fair or poor condition are available to researchers in consultation with the Archivist.

The upper date range (of 2010-2012, 2015) refers to the estimated date of a copies (of original manuscripts/typescripts by Burgess) included within AB/ARCH/A: Literary papers and music scores, written or adapted by Burgess, or by Burgess in collaboration with another author.

The majority of records within the collection are in good condition. However, a small number are in a fair or poor state (as indicated in the catalogue on a file-by-file, or item-by-item, basis). Access to fragile records may be restricted.

It is anticipated that the amount of material catalogued under each sub-section will continue to grow as an increasing amount of the collection is catalogued.