Plomer Collection

Literary papers and correspondence of William Plomer (1903-1973), and his library of printed books

William Charles Franklyn Plomer was born in South Africa in 1903, see Peter F. Alexander, William Plomer: a biography (Oxford, 1989) for a full biography. His first novel (Turbott Wolfe, 1926) dealt with love and marriage between black and white in South Africa. The themes of this book won Plomer youthful renown and provoked local outrage, or (as Roy Campbell wrote in The Wayzgoose), Awoke a sleepy continent to rage. With Roy Campbell and Laurens Van der Post he co-edited the controversial literary periodical Voorslag (meaning 'whiplash' in Afrikaans), until Campbell quarrelled with its sponsors and resigned. Although Plomer lost contact with Roy Campbell after 1933 (Alexander, p.199-200), he continued an extensive correspondence with Laurens Van der Post. Plomer left South Africa for Japan in 1926, where he wrote a collection of short stories dealing with South African themes, I speak of Africa, including a longer story about a Zulu migrant worker, Ula Masondo. Other friends from this time with whom Plomer maintained contact in later life included the painters Enslin du Plessis, Edward (Teddy) Wolfe and Anna von Schubert. He was later to write a short biography of Cecil Rhodes condemning his greed and racism. After a brief return to South Africa in 1956, Plomer met and corresponded with Nadine Gordimer, supported South African writers including Uys Krige and Jack Cope, collaborated with the latter on a translation of selected poems of Ingrid Jonker, and with Zelda Friedlander on her book of reminiscences of Olive Schreiner.

Plomer lived in Japan from October 1926 until March 1929, teaching English. While in Japan, he was supported by Edmund Blunden with whom he continued to correspond throughout his life. He also wrote a further collection of short stories, Paper houses, and two collections of poetry, Notes for poems and The family tree. His novel Sado was also set in Japan, and continuing interest in Japan may have inspired his friendship with John Morris (traveller and BBC broadcaster) and poet James Kirkup. The only former pupil with whom Plomer maintained an extensive correspondence throughout his life was Taro Shiomi, though the collection includes some letters from his companion Morito Fukuzawa until 1931, and correspondence over a longer period with Katsuye (Captain) Mori, whose ship had taken Plomer and Van der Post to Japan as part of diplomatic efforts to expand trade with British territories in Africa.

In 1929, Plomer moved permanently to England, shortly afterwards changing the pronunciation of his name to rhyme with 'rumour' (his parents had pronounced it to rhyme with 'Homer'), perhaps indicating his break with South Africa and family. He was befriended by Virginia and Leonard Woolf, whose Hogarth Press continued to publish his work, including The case is altered and a further volume of poems, The fivefold screen. The Woolfs also introduced him to many other writers, with whom extensive correspondence survives within the collection. He formed particularly close friendships with the 1930s poets (especially Cecil Day-Lewis, Christopher Isherwood and Stephen Spender), Joe Ackerley, Elizabeth Bowen, Lilian Bowes-Lyon, E.M. Forster, René Janin, John and Rosamund Lehmann, Harold Nicolson and Edith and Osbert Sitwell, and with the painters John and Myfanwy Piper. Plomer contributed regularly to John Lehmann's New Writing (later Penguin New Writing), often under the pseudonym Robert Pagan. During the late 1930s, Plomer began to write the macabre long poems in the style of ballads, for which he became most famous in the 1940s and 1950s.

Plomer was a prolific reviewer, and became the Reader (and literary advisor) for Jonathan Cape in 1937, on the recommendation of Rupert Hart-Davis. Cape had published his third collection of short stories ( The Child of Queen Victoria, published 1933, set chiefly in South Africa and Greece) and published almost all his later work, including novels The Invaders (1934) and Museum Pieces (1952), autobiographies Double lives (1943) and At home (1958), revised and extended by Simon Nowell-Smith as The Autobiography (1975), further volumes of poetry and short stories, his Collected Poems (1960, enlarged edition 1973) and his only writing for children, a set of poems to accompany illustrations by Alan Aldridge and published as The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast (1973).

He worked for Cape until his death, and recommended a number of 'firsts', including Derek Walcott, Alan Paton, Ted Walker and Ian Fleming, as well as John Betjeman (whom Cape rejected). Plomer had met Ian Fleming during WW2 when he worked for the Naval Intelligence Division, where he also formed long-term friendships with Admiral John Godfrey and John Russell. While at Cape, he read and edited the diaries of the Victorian clergyman Francis Kilvert, which established the hitherto unknown Kilvert as one of the greatest English diarists. Plomer joined the annual meetings of the Kilvert Society when it was established in 1948 and served as its President.

An important part of his post-war career was his collaboration with Benjamin Britten, initially as librettist for Gloriana (1953). Plomer had experienced traditional Noh theatre in Japan and encouraged Benjamin Britten to see Noh when he visited Japan in 1955-1956. The play Sumidagawa inspired what was to become Britten's and Plomer's first church opera, Curlew River, to be followed by The burning fiery furnace and The prodigal son.

Although not admitted in his published autobiographies, Plomer's homosexuality was central to his life and work. His writing rarely addresses gay relationships explicitly, except within his novel Sado and some of his stories set in Greece, but the influence of his sexuality is evident within his friendships. Among two of these were Anthony (Tony) Butts and Richard Rumbold (the latter a cousin), who both left behind incomplete manuscripts when they took their own lives (Butts in 1941, Rumbold in 1961). Plomer edited Butts' collection of family anecdotes, published as Curious Relations in 1949 (under the pseudonym William D'Arfey), and Rumbold's 29-year diary as A Message in Code in 1964. A less successful project was an edition of letters from Alice Lemon to her lover Winifred Nicol, written 1859-1862, which had to be abandoned when a descendant of Alice Lemon refused permission to publish. The influence of his sexuality on his other writings is analysed extensively in Alexander's biography, which refers to the apparent destruction by Plomer of much of his earlier correspondence after he had been reported to the police for soliciting a sailor in 1943. He was survived by his long-term partner, Charles Erdmann.

For over forty years, Plomer was at the centre of the English literary establishment. From 1937, he took part in BBC radio broadcasts, and contributed to the Aldeburgh Festival from its start in 1948. From the late 1950s, he contributed to frequent poetry readings and events, served on the Arts Council and the board of the Society of Authors, was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1951, awarded an honorary D.Litt. by the University of Durham in 1959, chaired the panel of judges for the Cholmondeley Award at its institution in 1966, won the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1963, was publicly tipped for the Poet Laureateship in 1967 and 1972, awarded a CBE in 1968 and elected president of the Poetry Society in 1968. Writers and literary figures who are well represented within his correspondence and not mentioned above include John Hampson, Susan Hill, Frank Templeton Prince, John Sparrow and James Stern.

Open for consultation.

The bulk of the collection, consisting of Plomer's literary papers together with his library, was presented by his literary executor, Sir Rupert Hart-Davis in 1974. Additions of related material continue to be made to it from various sources, by gift and purchase.

Manuscripts are listed within the online catalogue. The books from Plomer's library are catalogued in Discover.

The Jonathan Cape (publishers) archives include many of Plomer's reports and are held within the University of Reading's Special Collections.

The Leonard Woolf papers within the University of Sussex Special Collections (now at The Keep) incorporate the archive of the Hogarth Press which published Plomer's earlier works.

Benjamin Britten's archive is held by the Britten-Pears Foundation and includes Plomer's draft librettos as well as extensive correspondence.

The Frank Sargeson papers at the National Library of New Zealand (Alexander Turnbull Library) include extensive correspondence with Plomer, from 1942 to 1973.

The National English Literary Museum in Grahamstown, South Africa, includes Fred Pope's collection of cartoons drawn by William Plomer 1921-1922 (see Alexander biography, p.54-55 and p.344n.18)

Permission to make any published use of material from the collection must be sought in advance from the Head of Special Collections (e-mail PG.Library@durham.ac.uk) and, where appropriate, from the copyright owner. The Library will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material.

The extensive Laurens Van der Post papers were purchased by Durham University in 2016.

The papers of Norman Hidden, who was chairman of the Poetry Society at the same time that Plomer was the president, include a group of letters from Plomer to Hidden, and other material about the Poetry Society at that time.

The Rupert Hart-Davis papers include a few files relating to Hart-Davis' role as Plomer's literary executor at RHD 7 along with some correspondence.

The Claude Collier Abbott papers also include extensive correspondence with Joe Ackerley and Edmund Blunden.

The Oriental Museum includes a number of masks used in Noh plays, among its Japanese collections.

See Peter F. Alexander, William Plomer: a biography (Oxford, 1989) for a comprehensive bibliography. The following list only includes William Plomer's own monographs, collections and editions.

Turbott Wolfe (Hogarth Press, 1925 and 1965; transl. P. Naujack, Diogenes, 1965; transl. B. Oddera, Longanesi, 1971; Diogenes, 1976; Donker, 1980; OUP, 1985; transl. I. Skogsberg, Legenda, 1989)I Speak of Africa (Hogarth Press, 1927)Notes for Poems (Hogarth Press, 1927)Paper Houses (Hogarth Press, 1929; Penguin, 1943)The Family Tree (Hogarth Press, 1929)Sado (Hogarth Press, 1931; as They Never Come Back: a novel, Coward-McCann, 1932)The Case is Altered (Hogarth Press, 1932; Chatto and Windus, 1970)The Fivefold Screen (Hogarth Press, 1932)Cecil Rhodes (Peter Davies, 1933; Nelson, 1938; Heron Books, [1970s]; Philip, 1984)The Child of Queen Victoria (Cape, 1933)The Invaders (Cape, 1934)Visiting the Caves (Cape, 1936)Ali the Lion (Cape, 1936; as The Diamond of Jannina: Ali Pasha, Cape, 1970; abridged, as Ali Pasha: the Diamond of Jannina, Tower, 1970) Haruko Ichikawa (ed. William Plomer), Japanese Lady in Europe (Cape, 1937) Francis Kilvert (ed. William Plomer), Kilvert's Diary: selections... (3 vols, Cape, 1938-1940, corrected ed. 1960; 1 volume abridged version, 1944; as Ardizzone's Kilvert, illustrated, Cape, 1976)Selected Poems (Hogarth Press, 1940)In a Bombed House, 1941: elegy in memory of Anthony Butts (Curwen Press, 1942)Double Lives: an autobiography (Cape, 1943, 1944 and 1950)The Dorking Thigh and Other Satires (Cape, 1945) as William D'Arfey [Anthony Butts, ed. William Plomer], Curious Relations (Jonathan Cape, 1945; Sloane, 1947; Sphere, 1968)Four Countries (Cape, 1949)Museum Pieces (Cape, 1952; Noonday Press, 1954; Penguin, 1961) Benjamin Britten (music) and William Plomer (libretto), Gloriana: opera in three acts (Boosey & Hawes, 1953)A Shot in the Park (Cape, 1955)Borderline Ballads (Noonday Press, 1955)At Home: Memoirs (Cape, 1958; Penguin, 1961)Collected Poems (Cape, 1960; enlarged edition 1973)A Choice of Ballads (Cape, 1960) Richard Rumbold (ed. William Plomer), A Message in Code (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1964) Benjamin Britten (music) and William Plomer (libretto), Curlew River: a parable for church performance (Faber, 1964) Benjamin Britten (music) and William Plomer (libretto), The Burning Fiery Furnace: second parable for church performance (Faber, 1966)Taste and Remember (Cape, 1966) Benjamin Britten (music) and William Plomer (libretto), The Prodigal Son: third parable for church performance (Faber, 1968)Celebrations (Cape, 1972) Alan Aldridge and William Plomer, The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast (Cape, 1973) William Plomer (rev. Simon Nowell-Smith), The Autobiography of William Plomer (Cape, 1975; section for 1903-1926 as The South African Autobiography, Philip, 1984)A Dialogue (Nowell-Smith, 1977) William Plomer (ed. Rupert Hart-Davis), Electric Delights (Cape, 1978; Godine, 1978) William Plomer (ed. Stephen Gray), Selected Stories (Philip, 1984) William Plomer (ed. Stephen Gray), Selected Poems (Donker, 1985)