Literary papers and correspondence of Wayne Brown, with much related material concerning his wife Megan Brown and the sculptor Edna Manley

Comprises: (a) 1 box containing autograph manuscript and typescript drafts of miscellaneous poems by Wayne Brown, with annotations, and correspondence, chiefly with his wife Megan, partly dated ca. 1970-1975; (b) 2 large boxes containing many files of mainly typescript transcriptions of correspondence between Edna Manley and Norman Manley, and between others in the same family, partly dated ca. 1919-1969; also containing typed transcripts of interviews conducted by Brown with Edna Manley, probably during the early 1970s, concerning her life and work in preparation for his biography of her; (c) 1 box containing (i): 11 notebooks of various sizes and kinds compiled by Megan Brown; entries include addresses of various friends, artistic drawings, and diaries; (ii) part of a photograph album containing photographs of Wayne Brown as a small boy, dated 1946-1952; (d) 1 box containing correspondence between Megan and Wayne Brown, partially dated between 1966 and 1970, being letters and postcards, and some other greetings cards; and (e) 1 box containing 2 scrapbooks compiled by Megan Brown as a girl and young woman, including many family photographs dated from 1940 (the year of her parents' wedding) onwards, further photographs, cards, programmes, invitations to various functions, and press cuttings concerning her life at school in Bridlington and her circle of friends, part of a letter dated 1911, various artistic drawings, and photographs of some contemporary male pop stars, including Elvis Presley and Tommy Steele.

Wayne (Vincent) Brown, the poet and writer, was born on 18 July 1944 in Port of Spain, Trinidad, and educated at St Mary's College, Port of Spain, the University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica, and the University of Toronto. He held a Gregory Fellowship in Poetry at the University of Leeds in 1975-1976. He won the Jamaican Independence Festival Poetry Prize in 1968, and his collection of poetry entitled On the coast won the Commonwealth Prize for Poetry in 1972. He is equally well-known for his biography of Edna Manley (1975), his edition of Derek Walcott's poetry, and his collection of stories, The child of the sea (1990). His other writings include Landscape with Heron, Voyages, and Bearing witness: the best of the Observer Arts Magazine 2000. In 1968 he married Megan Hopkyn-Rees, a Yorkshire art student; she has become a renowned Caribbean interior decorator. Edna Manley (ne Swithenbank) (1900-1987), the sculptor and founder of the Jamaica School of Arts whose biography he wrote, was married to Norman Washington Manley (1893-1969), an Oxford graduate in Law who was Prime Minister of Jamaica, 1959-1962, and a national hero as the founder of the moderately socialist People's National Party. Their son, Michael Norman Manley (1924-1997), was also Prime Minister of Jamaica, 1972-1980 and 1989-1992.

Access is unrestricted.

Deposited in the library by the School of English via Professor John Barnard ca. 1990.

In English.