DEREK HUDSON (1911-2003), JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR: PAPERS, INCLUDING CORRESPONDENCE, PHOTOGRAPHS, CUTTINGS AND FAMILY PAPERS

This collection includes correspondence, press and publicity cuttings, reviews, poems and articles by Hudson, postcards, memorabilia, photographs, notebooks, sketchbooks and loose family papers. A detailed summary is below:

8593/1/ CATALOGUED MATERIAL 1854-1998
Correspondence, press and publicity cuttings, reviews, poems and articles by Hudson, post cards, photographs and memorabilia.

8593/1/1/ CORRESPONDENCE 1854-1997
Letters and cards numbered L1-L520, largely to Derek Hudson, from various correspondents including members of the Hudson family, admirers and sceptics, and well-known names from literary and artistic circles such as D B Wyndham Lewis, C P Snow, Cecil Harmsworth, Sir John Wheeler-Bennett, the Rev John O'Connor [model for G K Chesterton's 'Father Brown'], H Wilson Harris, Giles Playfair, Laurence Binyon, H J Massingham, Roger Lancelyn Green, Christopher Milne, Walter de la Mare, Kenneth [Lord] Clark, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Rupert Hart-Davis, Hilaire Belloc, Marghanita Laski, M H Spielmann, Bevis Hillier, James Lees-Milne, Colin Campbell, Ernest Irving, Enid Blyton, Margaret Drabble, Gordon Langley Hall, Martin F Tupper, Roy Jenkins, Dirk Bogarde, Terrence Rattigan, Conant Brodribb, Jean Conan Doyle [daughter of Arthur], Simon Houfe, Max W Boyce, Anthony Rota, Edward Gordon Craig, Laurence Whistler, Lawrence Howard, E M Forster, E V Lucas, John Betjeman and Rose Macaulay; of particular interest is a previously unknown autograph letter of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson [Lewis Carroll] at L457, from Hudson's personal collection of Carrolliana. NB: L340 is missing; L416-L419 are with M255; and the contents of L456 are stored separately. L521-L568 have not been deposited at present. The catalogue only picks out selected items.

8593/1/2/ PRESS AND PUBLICITY CUTTINGS 1871-1996
Cuttings numbered C1-C511 from newspapers and magazines of articles by Hudson and others, reviews of books by Hudson and others, notices of events, obituaries and memorial services, and letters; references to well-known names from historic, literary and artistic circles include Roger Lancelyn-Green, Christopher Isherwood, G K Chesterton, Daphne du Maurier, K W Luckhurst, Giles Playfair, H J Massingham, Percy Grainger, Marghanita Laski, Peter Fleming [brother of Ian, travel writer], Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], John Murray, Enid Blyton, Martin F Tupper, C W Brodribb, Arthur Rackham, G F Watts, Frederick Delius, Norman and Adine O'Neill [Hudson's parents-in-law], D B Wyndham Lewis, Dick Turpin, John Betjeman, Vincenzo Lunardi, Jane Austen, Edward Ardizzone, Joshua Reynolds, Hilaire Belloc, C S Forester, Oscar Wilde, William Makepeace Thackeray, Isaac Watts, Hans Anderson, the Duke of Wellington, Coventry Patmore and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. NB: C223-C230 are with M255; C379 has been amalgamated with C339; C501-C511 have not been deposited at present. The following list picks out notable items.

8593/1/3/ 'MISCELLANEOUS' 1886-1991
Material catalogued as 'Miscellaneous' and numbered M1-M418, including reviews, poems, articles, greetings and post cards, cartoons, programmes, booklets, advertisements, family memorabilia and photographs. Some items in the series M371-M418 have not been deposited at present. The catalogue merely describes some items of note.

8593/1/4/ FINDING AIDS 1998

8593/2/ BOOKLETS 1860-1984
A selection of booklets from Hudson's library.

8593/2/ GENERAL MATERIAL 1931-1978

8593/2/ WORKS BY AND RELATING TO THE HUDSON FAMILY 1886-1970

8593/2/ WORKS BY AND RELATING TO LEWIS CARROLL (CHARLES LUTWIDGE DODGSON) 1884-1984

8593/2/ WORKS BY THE REV JOHN O'CONNOR [1933]-1939

8593/2/ WORKS BY F B O'NEILL AND RELATING TO G B AND NORMAN O'NEILL 1916-1977

8593/3/ PERSONAL MATERIAL 1862-[1990s]
Scrapbooks and albums, notebooks, sketchbooks and MSS (including childhood stories, plays, novels, short stories, articles and academic papers) from Hudson's library.

8593/3/ SCRAPBOOKS AND ALBUMS 1910-1981

8593/3/ SKETCHBOOKS 1912-193[7]

8593/3/ TYPESCRIPTS AND MSS 1862-1984
Childhood stories, plays, novels, short stories, articles and academic papers.

8593/3/ ADDITIONAL MATERIAL DEPOSITED IN FEBRUARY 2011 1854-1954
Includes personal photograph albums and scrapbooks.

8593/4/ FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHS, LETTERS AND PAPERS MID 19TH CENT-2006
Family papers, including correspondence, post cards and photographs, not previously catalogued with material from Hudson's library. The arrangement of this section is provisional pending the possible deposit of further material.

Derek Hudson was born at Denmark Hill, Camberwell (South London), and was resident for most of his life in Surrey. He began his career in journalism in Oxford as an undergraduate, progressing to the Birmingham Post and the London Times, and was also a playwright and author; his biographical subjects include W M Praed (1939), Norman O'Neill (1945), Martin Tupper (1949), Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1954) and Arthur Rackham (1960).

In 1998, these records (apart from the loose family papers) were boxed and a library-style catalogue made; the first part of this list (8593/1/-) follows that arrangement. A CD and paper printout (amended in the preparation of this list) of the catalogue are at 8593/1/4/1-2; a key to the numbering of books in Hudson's collection, from which the majority of the catalogued records were taken, is at 8593/1/4/3. The catalogue binder at 8593/1/4/2 should be consulted in the first instance, as a means of identifying particular items within 8593/1/-.

Additional uncatalogued material in 8593/4/-, deposited in February 2011, has been arranged in a provisional box list from item -/5 onwards.

There are no access restrictions.

Presented by Mrs Katherine Jessel, Derek Hudson's daughter, in September 2009 and February 2011.

An item level description of the archive is available on the Surrey History Centre online catalogue

Papers of Derek Hudson relating to his biographies of Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], Martin Tupper and Arthur Munby, (1864)-1980, are held as 1521.

The BBC radio archive includes material relating to Hudson's brother, Robert Hudson, commentator and broadcaster.

The Stratford upon Avon Canal Society, the Warwickshire Record Office and The National Archives include material on the Stratford upon Avon Canal, of which Hudson's grandfather, Robert Hudson, was Director during the 19th century.

The British Library Music Collection and the Royal College of Music include material relating to Hudson's parents-in-law, Norman and Adine O'Neill.

Derek Hudson's autobiography, Writing Between the Lines, was published by High Hill Books in 1965.