Correspondence

The following seven files contain mostly business correspondence, namely letters addressed to Harold Blundell from his various publishing and other literary associates which date from around 1945-1980. The files contain correspondence with the London-based publishing company, John Gifford Ltd, Jacques David, literary agent, of Paris, W. & G. Foyle, booksellers, of London, World Distributors of Grosvenor House, Manchester, and the Librairie des Champs-Elysees in Paris. The files contain papers relating to such business as agents' fees, general publishing issues regarding Blundell's literary works such as editing, proof-reading, translations, contracts, royalty sheets, and accounts and financial statements. In a few instances the letters detail the publisher's own comments on Blundell's work or their opinions (sometimes quite scathing) of critics who have themselves commented on Blundell's work. There is also a file of general correspondence which includes several letters from fans and friends, and other personal material, alongside the business-related material. BLU/3/1 also includes three reader reports made for a number of Blundell's books, which have been retained with the original file as shown below with respect to how they were arranged by the record creator. The letters themselves are largely in typescript and printed on company headed paper, although in a number of cases the correspondence has been handwritten.

Aside from the miscellaneous papers, the correspondence was originally placed in files according to the person or organization Blundell was communicating with, the letters in each file subsequently being arranged in a chronological format. These file units have been retained, but arranged according to the name of the corresponding body in a chronological format according to the start date of each file, since it can be established that all of the main files relate to publishing matters in general. The file of general correspondence (BLU/3/7) has been catalogued last in this series as it is difficult to ascertain the exact date coverage of the material contained within.