The collection comprises:
Jack Hilton was born in Oldham, Lancashire on 21 January 1900, the sixth child of George Hilton (1866-1952), a railway goods checker. Soon after, the Hilton family moved to Rochdale where Jack grew up. He left school in 1914, entered the army in 1916, and returned to Rochdale in c.1918 where he entered the plastering trade, joining the Plasterer's Union in 1924. He married Mary Jane Parrot (d.1955) in 1922. Jack Hilton received lessons in literature during a spell of unemployment and in 1935, his first creative work, the autobiographical Caliban Shrieks, was published by Cobden-Sanderson. Hilton studied at Ruskin College, Oxford between 1935 and 1937 following his successful application for a Cassel scholarship. In 1939, he returned to Oxford; to employment as a porter-carpenter at Somerville College and a fireman.
He was invalided out of the fire brigade following the effects of a blast and later undertook building work in Hackney, London. Hilton was active in the trade union movement, demonstrated against unemployment and was a member of the Socialist Labour Party.
As a writer, Hilton drew on his working experience, understanding of working class conditions, and socialist beliefs, producing narratives with a strongly polemical tone. His published works included: Champion (1938), English Ribbon (1950), English Ways (1940), and Laugh at Polonius (1942). Short stories or sections of his full length works appeared in literary periodicals including Adelphi and Left Review.
The collection has been divided by document type into two main groups; personal papers and literary papers. Within these groups, items have been arranged in chronological order within series.
ACCESS: Accessible to registered readers by advance appointment; some series are restricted pending full cataloguing.
REPROGRAPHIC: Reprographic copies can be supplied for educational use and private study purposes only, depending on access status and the condition of the documents.
This description is the only finding aid available for the collection. Copyright in the description belongs to The University of Nottingham.
COPYRIGHT: Permission to make published use of any material from this collection must be sought in advance in writing from the Keeper of the Department of Manuscripts and Special Collections (email mss-library@nottingham.ac.uk). The Department will try to assist in identifying copyright owners but this can be difficult and the responsibility for copyright clearance before publication ultimately rests with the person wishing to publish.
LANGUAGE: English
The collection was acquired by The University of Nottingham's Department of Manuscripts and Special Collections in May 1992.
