Papers of Rupert Croft-Cooke

This small collection consists of the following: seven scrapbooks containing newscuttings mainly of book reviews of works by Croft-Cooke 1922-1965, also including some newspaper serialisations of short stories; complete galley proofs to Conduct Unbecoming (1975); assorted copies of the Argentinian English-language publication The Star (or La Estrella) 1924 and Sport and Society 1923-1924 (Croft-Cooke was the Editor of these publications); three school photographs n.d. [c1920s].

Rupert Croft-Cooke (1903-1979) was born in Kent and educated at Tonbridge School and Wellington College. He then taught English for five years, first in Paris and then in Buenos Aires where he also founded and edited the periodical La Estrella. He returned to England in 1925, setting up a bookshop in Kent, as well as doing broadcasting and journalism work, with pieces appearing in the literary magazines New Writing, Adelphi, Chapbook, The New Coterie, English Review and Poetry. Before joining the army in 1940, he moved abroad again to Germany, Switzerland and Spain. Returning in 1946, he took up writing again, holding the position of book critic for The Sketch between 1947 and 1953. He lived in Morocco for much of his later life.

He published more than 125 books of all genres, many for the mass market, and was best known as a writer of detective fiction: many of these works were published under the name Leo Bruce. The two heroes Sergeant Beef and Carolus Deane established his greatest literary success.

Usual EUL arrangements apply.

Listed by Charlotte Berry, Archivist, 18 Feb 2004, and encoded into EAD 2 June 2004. The biographical notes have been taken from the biographical sketch used in the catalogue of the Croft-Cooke Papers at Washington State University Library.

Currently unlisted.

Photocopying only with permission of the depositor.

Deposited at the Library in 2003. A book collection of Croft-Cooke was also deposited in Special Collections at the same time, and has been catalogued as part of the Reserve Collection.

Papers of Rupert Croft-Cooke are also held at the following repositories: University of Reading; Bodleian Library; University of Durham; University of Oxford; BBC Written Archives Centre; University of Texas (Harry Ransom Center, Austin), and Washington State University Library.

Not known.