Posthumous editions of texts by Walter Strachan and related papers

As stated by Geoffrey Strachan in his inventory of the collection, following the death of his father in 1994, "my object, as his literary executor, in establishing the [Walter Strachan] Archive, was to rescue for posterity what was unique and valuable among his papers, to find a way of editing and publishing the memoirs he had been preparing during the last ten years of his life and ultimately to find an institutional home for his papers". He spent several years working on, appraising and editing the documentary material in his possession, and in 2005 he published W.J. Strachan's memoirs (providing an introduction and commentary himself) as Only connect...poets, painters, sculptors: friendships and shared passions, 1924-1994. During his early work on this volume, an unexpected suggestion from the French painter Mario Avati diverted him onto the three-year task of planning and arranging for the publication of Masks; this volume contains a selection of Strachan's poems, illustrated by some of the artists who were his friends, and forms a livre d'artiste in its own right as well as a homage to Strachan. This series of material includes two copies of Only connect..., as well as a copy of Masks; there are also some associated papers with the latter volume, including correspondence relating to the genesis and completion of the book, proof pages and original cartes de voeux (New Year greeting cards) from some of the artists represented.