The Frank Arthur Swinnerton Collection: A Special Literary Collection at the University of Arkansas

248 THE FRANK ARTHUR SWINNERTON COLLECTION: A SPECIAL LITERARY COLLECTION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS By Jesse F. McCartney (University of Southern Mississippi) Now in his ninetieth year, Frank Arthur Swinnerton is in a familiar situation: he is engaged in writing a novel. In addition to forty novels and fifteen other book-length works, Mr. Swinnerton has produced numerous reviews, essays, short stories, appreciations , and miscellaneous pieces which have enlightened and entertained the readers of British and American journals throughout most of this, century. Mr. Swinnerton has also contributed immeasurably to the book world as a publisher's reader and as a private advisor and consultant to countless authors and publishers. As an acquaintance of Willa Cather, Ellen Glasgow, H. L. Mencken, Katherine Mansfield, John Middleton Murry, Bertrand Russell, and George Bernard Shaw (to name but a few) and as a close friend of Arnold Bennett, Hugh Walpole, H. G. Wells and other literary figures, Mr. Swinnerton can only be envied. For his generous record of these literary friendships in The Georgian Scene : A Literary Panorama (NY: Farrar & Rinehart, 1934). Swinnerton; An Autobiography (Garden City, NY; Doubleday, Doran, 1936), Background with Chorus; A Footnote to Changes in English Literary Fashion Between 1901 and I917 (Lond: Hutchinson, 1956), and Figures in the Foreground: Literary Reminiscences. 1917-40 (Lond: Hutchinson, 1963) he must be praised by those who have any interest in twentieth-century literature.â– "â– Gratitude is due him also for another service to literary studies; his willingness to share with students his extensive correspondence and many of his manuscripts. Through the efforts of Professor H. Blair Rouse, whose critical biography of Mr. Swinnerton is to be published in the Twayne English Authors Series, the University of Arkansas purchased a basic collection of these materials in 1964. My catalogue of that collection, available through University Microfilms, was completed in I97I. An index of the collection, being prepared by Mr. Claude Gibson, will soon be available also. Since 1964, other manuscripts and correspondence, most notably letters of Siegfried Sassoon, have been added to the collection; and it is hoped that Mr. Swinnerton will release other materials to be added to the collection in the future. For the present, the basic collection is readily usable by scholars. The collection is divided into two major parts: I. Correspondence ; and II. Manuscripts and Miscellaneous Items. The correspondence is further divided into three sections: A. General Correspondence; B. Bennett Trust Correspondence; and C. Publishers ' Correspondence. Similarly, there are four sections of Part II of the collection: A. Shorter Non-Fiction Prose, which is further sub-divided into several categories; B. Shorter Fiction, C. Longer Non-Fiction Prose; and D. Longer Fiction. 249 I. Correspondence A. General Correspondence; This section contains letters from almost five hundred correspondents, including J. M. Barrie, William Rose Benet, Willa Cather, Joseph Conrad, Ellen Glasgow, Sinclair Lewis, Somerset Maugham, H. L. Mencken, G. B. Shaw, and H. G. Wells. Among the more copious correspondents are Hulbert (Bill) Footner, A. G. Gardiner, Horace Horsnell, Norah Hoult, Marie Belloc Lowndes, A. N. Monkhouse, Vivian Phillipps, S. K. Ratcliffe (over four hundred letters), Vernon Rendall, Eugene Saxton, L. A. G. Strong, H. G. Wells, and Frank Swinnerton himself, whose collection of letters to F. Garfield Howe comprise some of the most interesting correspondence in the collection. The subject matter of the correspondence ranges from family gossip to literary criticism, from the inevitable and innumerable invitations to problems in modern politics, from drainage and sewerage to the book business. Obviously, those who delve into the collection are more likely to be searching for the statements on criticism, politics, and publishing; yet for the potential biographer or literary critic, the essence of the personalities of the correspondents is sometimes as important as the content of the letters themselves, and the collection offers these kinds of insights, too. B. Bennett Trust Fund Correspondence; This section consists of correspondence relating to the Bennett Trust Fund, of which Swinnerton was a trustee; or the correspondence is from Enoch Arnold Bennett, his relatives, or close associates. This part of the collection contains two hundred and eleven pieces of correspondence from Bennett himself, the earliest dating from 1911 and the last written shortly...