Correspondence of Patric Thomas Dickinson (1914-1994)

The material is composed of letters and cards to Tina May Walton, 1978-1979.

Poet, playwright, translator, editor and freelance broadcaster Patric Thomas Dickinson was born on 26 December 1914. He studied at St. Catherine's College, Cambridge. Between 1936 and 1939 he was a schoolmaster, and he was associated with the 1938 Cambridge University Footlights Dramatic Club production Pure and simple. In the first year of the war, 1939-1940 he served with the Artists' Rifles before working with the BBC. In 1973 he received the Cholmondeley Award alongside Philip Larkin. His published work includes Soldiers' verse (1945), Theseus and the Minotaur, and poems (1946), The sailing race and other poems (1952), Aristophanes against war: The Acharnians, The peace, Lysistrata (1957), The world I see (1960), More than time (1970), and A rift in time: poems (1982). Latterly he lived in Rye, East Sussex. Patric Thomas Dickinson died on 28 January 1994.

Generally open for consultation to bona fide researchers, but please contact repository for details in advance.

Material purchased Dupre, June 1987, Accession no. E87.70. Material purchased from Gekoski, London, May 1988, Accession no. E88.35.

The biographical/administrative history was compiled using (1) Who's who 1987. London: A. and C. Black, 1987., and miscellaneous material accessible on the web.

Compiled by Graeme D Eddie, Edinburgh University Library, Special Collections Division.

Important finding aids generally are: the alphabetical Index to Manuscripts held at Edinburgh University Library, Special Collections and Archives, consisting of typed slips in sheaf binders and to which additions were made until 1987; and the Index to Accessions Since 1987.

Check the local Indexes for details of any additions.

The UK National Register of Archives (NRA), updated by the Historical Manuscripts Commission, notes several locations of Dickinson related material: letters and MSS, University of Texas at Austin, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center Library; literary papers, 1941-1965, Indiana University, Lilly Library; correspondence, 1970-1980, Leeds University Library, Special Collections; literary manuscripts, 1955-1971, Birmingham University Information Services, Special Collections Department, Ref. Dickinson NRA 16011 Dickinson, and letters and cards to Bill Godward, Ref. MS68; correspondence with Robert Donat, 1945-1950, Manchester University, John Rylands Library, Ref. FRD 1/1/129 NRA 43488 Donat; papers as literary executor of Isaac Rosenberg, 1960-1980, Imperial War Museum Department of Documents; and, correspondence with Sir Sydney Cockerell, 1948-1957, British Library, Manuscript Collections, Ref. Add MS 52712.