Walpole, Sir Hugh Seymour

A holograph fair copy of Portraits of the Period by Sir Hugh Walpole, with a letter from the author, 1918-1919.

Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole was born on 13 March 1884 in Auckland, New Zealand. He was educated at King's School, Canterbury, Durham School and in 1903 he attended Emmanuel College Cambridge. Before the First World War Walpole joined the staff of the Mersey Mission to Seaman in 1906; he travelled to France and Germany in 1907 and became the assistant master at Epsom College in 1908. In 1909 he went to London where he published his first novel The Wooden Horse . While in London he also became a book reviewer for the Evening Standard , in 1913. During the First World War, 1914-1918, he served with the Red Cross in Russia, receiving the Order of St George for his heroism. He was also awarded a CBE in 1918 and during the following two years he received the literary prize, the James Tait Black Prize. Walpole was a prolific writer, averaging about a novel a year. He was knighted in 1937. Walpole died in his country home in Keswick, Cumbria on 1 June 1941.

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University of London Library, The Sterling library: a catalogue of the printed books and literary manuscripts collected by Sir Louis Sterling and presented by him to the University of London , Cambridge, (1954).

The Library of Congress Manuscripts Division, Washington, USA, holds correspondence, literary manuscripts and papers, 1912-1941 (Ref: NUC MS 62-4850); the Bodleian Library, Oxford University, holds his literary collection (Ref: MSS Walpole), letters to A Spemann and miscellaneous papers, 1929-1937 (Ref: MS Eng lett c291), and letters from Marguerite Steen (real name Marguerite Benson), [1930-1950]; Northwestern University Library, Illinois, USA, has literary papers; Keswick Museum and Art Gallery contains literary manuscripts and correspondence, and letters received by Walpole, 1910-1939; the Harry ransom Humanities Research Center Library, University of Texas at Austin, USA, holds correspondence and literary papers; The King's School, Canterbury, has a literary collection; the William Morris Library, London, contains a manuscript entitled 'For appreciation of William Morris', 1934; the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge University, holds a manuscript of 'Mr Perrin and Mr Tail'; Reading University Library has correspondence with Bodley Head Ltd, 1920-1931; the West Yorkshire Archive Service, Bradford, contains correspondence with the Bradford English Society, 1924-1931 (Ref: 39D85); Birmingham University Information Services holds correspondence with Francis Brett Young (Ref: FBY); Queen's University Archives, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, has correspondence with John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, 1912-1937 (Ref: A.ARCH 2110, box 13/28); Durham University Library contains letters to Mrs M D Darwin, 1906-1909 (Ref: ABL), and letters from William Charles Franklyn Plomer, [1920]-1941; the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh, holds letters to Newman Flower, 1919-1940 (Ref: Acc 8798), and letters to William Roughead, 1921-1936 (Ref: MSS 9762-68); the British Library has correspondence with Macmillans, 1916-1941 (Ref: Add MSS 54958-61), and correspondence with the Society of Authors, 1921-1942 (Ref: Add MSS 63340); the New York Public Library, USA, contains correspondence with Sir Edward Howard Marsh (Ref: Berg Collection); the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge University, holds letters to Cecil Edric Mornington Roberts, 1920-1940 (Ref: RBTS); the Royal Society of Literature, London, has letters from Wapole to the Society, 1925-1938; Sussex University Library, Brighton, contains correspondence with (Adeline) Virginia Woolf, 1924-1940 (Ref: SxMsMHL(VW)).

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