Literary Drafts

This series comprises twelve draft copies of work written by Harold Blundell both in handwritten and typed format, and substantially annotated and edited for publication. The manuscripts themselves are not actually dated, but predate works that were either published, or indeed broadcast, during the period 1951-1980. All but one (the aforementioned radio play) post-date his retirement from Martin's Bank in 1962, whereafter his literary output increased, and they relate solely to his work as a crime writer. A few of the manuscript files include covering letters from publishers regarding the editing of Blundell's work.

The majority of these manuscripts came to the Library stored in individual files labelled according to the title of the final published work, although there are also loose notebooks (BLU/1/11) and a printed book proof from the publisher (BLU/1/2) which have also been retained within the collection. The literary drafts had not been put into any coherent order, and have been subsequently arranged according to the year the final work was published. As noted above, a few of the works had been placed in folders with other supplementary material such as covering letters from the publishing companies suggesting corrections and amendments. This material has been retained with the respective draft copy for contextual reasons, and added to the individual item entries in the catalogue. The typescript drafts of A devious murder (BLU/1/5) and Fear round about (BLU/1/6) were originally stored in a single cardboard box, but have subsequently been placed into separate files and catalogued as individual items; a note has been added to the item entry stating that the two were originally boxed together.