Administrative Papers

This subgroup is comprised entirely of correspondence files. Currently only those files from the first two accessions of the archive have been catalogued in detail (CPA/2/1-3), and the number of items and pieces stated above reflects only this portion of the archive. This material covers the period from Carcanet's beginnings in Oxford in 1969 to mid-1980, by which time the Press was well-established at its Corn Exchange headquarters in Manchester. The correspondence is largely carried out by Michael Schmidt, although some letters are addressed to other Carcanet personnel. As outlined at collection level, the correspondents include not only Carcanet poets, editors, translators, critics, and contributors to Poetry Nation and PN Review, but also many other significant literary friends and acquaintances of Schmidt. The scope of the correspondence is extremely wide-ranging, not only documenting in detail the process of editing and publishing Carcanet books (the whole breadth of the Carcanet list is represented) and the growth and expansion of the Press, but also covering a huge range of other topics, and reflecting the wider literary and cultural climate of the time. Many of the files also include literary manuscripts which were sent to Schmidt with accompanying letters. A much more detailed outline of the nature of the correspondence and its content is given at series level below.

The files are arranged into series based on the accession in which they came to the Library. When detailed cataloguing began, it became clear that among the earlier material, the second and third accessions (or 'sequences', as they were termed) actually comprised more than one accession each; there was, for example, more than one distinct alphabetical sequence of correspondence in each, covering broadly different chronological periods. In the case of the second accession, the two separate sequences have now been reconstructed and are reflected in the archive's arrangement. The same approach will be taken with subsequent accessions where this occurs.

It should be assumed that correspondence on the Carcanet side is conducted by Michael Schmidt unless stated otherwise. References to letters being holograph or typescript, and to the location of dating apply only to incoming correspondence, not copies of outgoing letters created by Carcanet. The term 'letters' denotes incoming letters only; 'copy letter' denotes a copy outgoing letter; and 'correspondence' indicates that both sides of the exchange are included in the file.

The material which has been subject to detailed cataloguing so far is arranged in three series, as follows:

• CPA/2/1 Correspondence Files from Accession 1.
• CPA/2/2 First Sequence of Correspondence Files from Accession 2.
• CPA/2/3 Second Sequence of Correspondence Files from Accession 2.