Kathleen Hersom Collection

Draft material, correspondence and associated papers relating to published works by Kathleen Hersom, and copies of her books for children. The collection also contains correspondence and some additional papers, primarily contracts and royalty statements, relating to several anthologies to which Hersom contributed short stories for publication. Copies of the published editions of these anthologies, and several serial publications to which Hersom contributed stories, are also included in the collection.

Created by Kathleen Hersom during the course of her career as a writer.

The collection is arranged into 5 series as follows:

KH/01 Draft material

KH/02 Correspondence

KH/03 Contracts and royalties

KH/04 Index cards

KH/05 Printed books

This system of arrangement reflects Hersom's own system of filing material according to the type of record (e.g. draft material relating to a particular title being filed separately from related contracts and royalty statements, which were all kept together). However, there is some overlap between the first two series - Hersom kept correspondence specifically relating to a published title with the draft material and separate from the general correspondence, which was filed according to correspondent. This separation has been maintained here, so correspondence relating to a published title is to be found in the first series [KH/01 Draft material], alongside the draft material for that title.

Accessible to all researchers, by appointment only.

The Kathleen Hersom Collection was appraised and weeded according to the following rules:

1. Published books - all drafts, correspondence, contracts and associated papers were retained

2. Other published material (including radio broadcasts and anthology contributions) - correspondence and contracts were retained, along with a published copy of the work in question; all drafts were removed

3. Unpublished material - all drafts, correspondence (mostly documenting unsuccessful attempts to have material published) and associated papers were removed

4. Correspondence - where numerous successive drafts and copies existed of outgoing letters written by Hersom, only a copy of the final draft was retained; all other drafts and copies were removed

5. Exact duplicates were removed

All weeded material was returned to Kathleen Hersom's daughter, as the representative of Hersom's estate.

Donated to Seven Stories by the creator's husband, Donald Hersom, in 2005. A larger body of material than that accessioned was originally deposited with Seven Stories in 2005, pending appraisal and subject to the condition that unwanted material would be returned to the donor. This included material relating to unpublished works by Kathleen Hersom - for a more detailed description of all material originally deposited see entry record E2005.8. Following appraisal of the collection, 6 boxes of unwanted material were returned to Kathleen Hersom's daughter, Brenda Blacklock, in March 2008 - see the relevant donor file for a full list of returned material.