Literary papers and publications of W.G. Curtis Morgan, with some letters and personal and financial items

Comprises: (1) 3 boxes of literary papers by Morgan, including (a) Mainly typescript drafts with autograph manuscript revisions of 12 plays, namely, 'The Squire of Darkfield' (4 drafts), 'The Jurado Rebus', otherwise known as 'The Jurado Mystery' and 'These Odd Jurados' (4 drafts), 'Pearls and Penitents' (2 drafts), 'No Love for John or Juanita' (2 drafts, 1 incomplete and with a 'synopsis of Strange Jealousy'), 'Last Mission in Paris' (1 draft), 'The Blind Spot' (1 draft), 'The Dean and the Diva' (1 draft), 'It Began at Oxford' (1 draft), 'A Fitting Foil' (1 draft), 'Strange Incidents in Paris' (1 draft), 'Do You Believe in Dreams?' (1 draft), and the title-page only of a cinematic comedy-drama entitled 'An Oxford Romance'; (b) Similar drafts of 4 novels, namely, 'Paris Enigma' (1 draft), 'The Nigger-Blonde' (1 draft), 'Recoil' (1 draft, with a press cutting of a review of his A Frontier Romance extracted from the Morning Post pasted on to the inside cover of the folder, dated 29 June 1926), and 'An Oxford Romance' (1 incomplete draft); and (c) Further similar drafts of 5 historical and political works, namely, 'Why I was Bombed, by Celticus' (1 draft), 'Britain, the Way Back to Greatness' (1 draft), 'The Twentieth Century Sickness' (1 draft), 'Grand Strategy of Idiocy, Part 2' (1 draft), and 'Suez' and other notes (1 draft); (2) 5 autograph manuscript or typescript letters from editors concerning his writings, partially dated between 12 July 1954 and 4 July 1986, giving reasons for rejecting the scripts of various of his compositions; (3) 1 folder of personalia and financial papers, dated between 1922 and 1991; and (4) 4 of his published works, namely, A Frontier Romance (1926) (2 copies, with notes inserted by Morgan and his signature), Not This Man but Barabbas (1929), An Oxford Romance (1948), and My Life Through Six Reigns (1983), and 3 printed works by others, namely, 'Self-criticism', by Frederick Palmer (1922, a pamphlet), 'Synopsis of Double Speed', by J. Stewart Woodhouse (n.d., copy signed by Morgan, 9/4/23), and 'Synopsis of The Man under Cover', by Louis Victor Eytinge (1922, copy signed by Morgan 7/4/23).Sections (2)-(4) are all held in Box 4.

William Gordon Curtis Morgan, the Welsh writer, novelist, and playwright, was born on 18 May 1892 at Talybont, near Aberystwyth, and educated at Llandovery College (1903-1911) and Queen's College, Oxford (1911-1914). During the First World War he was commissioned in the South Wales Borderers in February 1915 and served in France. In 1918 he transferred to the Indian Army and spent four years in India, returning home afterwards on a three month's journey via China, Japan, and North America. In the 1920s he had two novels published, A Frontier Romance (1926) and Not This Man but Barabbas (1929). Throughout the 1930s he ran a 'Private Tutor's Boarding Establishment' specialising in teaching English to students from overseas. During the Second World War he served in the Royal Air Force, after which he had another novel published, namely, An Oxford Romance (1947), and a play, 'The Blind Spot', produced by a repertory company. He published his autobiography, My Life Through Six Reigns, in 1983, and took his Oxford M.A. Degree Certificate from Queen's College, Oxford, in March 1987. He also wrote journal articles on life in a public school and at Oxford, besides further unpublished plays and novels, and some political, social, and economic articles of a British patriotic nature. Morgan lived in Llandovery from 1946 until his death.

Access is unrestricted.

Bequest of the author via Mr Peter H. Liddle, July 1991.

In English.