Autograph manuscript and typescript drafts of thirteen poems by David Wright, with a letter to Paul Potts

Comprises: (1) Numerous autograph manuscript and typescript drafts of seven poems by David Wright, namely, 'George Barker at seventy', 'Lines for Donald Davie', 'Meetings', 'Owl', 'A present for Charles Causley', 'Properties', and 'Remembering Tennyson', with many revisions, and accompanied by typewritten slips giving details of the publications in which they were subsequently printed, the dates ranging from 1981 to 1983; and (2) six typescript drafts of other poems by David Wright, namely, an extract from 'Atlantic Eclogue', 'Fortunate as Ulysses', 'A Landscape of Africa', 'Two Love Lyrics', 'Silenus', and 'No Money but the Summer', with some manuscript revisions. These poems are listed in a covering typescript letter from Wright to Paul [Potts], undated, but probably ca. 1947, on which the recipient has written a partial reply in manuscript.

David (John Murray) Wright, the poet and writer, was born on 23 February 1920 in Johannesburg, South Africa. He became deaf at the age of seven, was brought to England at the age of fourteen to attend the Northampton School for the Deaf, and graduated from Oriel College, Oxford, in 1942. Between 1965 and 1967 he was a Gregory Fellow in Poetry at the University of Leeds. His first poetry collection, Poems, was published by Poetry London in 1949. He subsequently published numerous other books of poetry and also edited several anthologies. In 1969 he wrote his autobiography, Deafness: a personal account. He also wrote a few critical works and three books on Portugal. He lived for some years in the Lake District and died in 1994.

Access is unrestricted.

Purchased partly from Quaritch/Sotheby's on 4 August 1983 and partly from Fergusson on 2 April 1992.

In English.