Descriptive Summary
Berry, Francis,
1915-
Francis Berry Papers
ca.
1928-1961
TXRC94-A21
3 boxes, 1 galley folder
(1.5 linear feet)
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center,
University of Texas at Austin
Poet and professor of
literature Francis Berry published a large number of poetry collections as well
as a respectable amount of literary criticism. The papers document Berry's
development as a poet from his earliest poetic endeavors to his mature
creations, as well as the evolution of his critical ideas.
English.
Biographical Sketch
Francis Berry, poet and professor of literature, was born March 23,
1915, in Ipoh, Malaya. He graduated with a B.A. from the University of London
in 1947; upon completion of his undergraduate studies, Berry obtained a
lectureship in English at the University of Sheffield and was promoted to a
professorship by 1960, the year he received his M.A. from the University of
Exeter. From 1970 to 1980, he taught at Royal Holloway College of the
University of London from which he retired professor emeritus. Various visiting
professorships took him to Carleton College in Minnesota, to the University of
the West Indies in Jamaica, to India and to Japan as a British Council
Lecturer, to the University of Glasgow, to the Australian National University
in Canberra, and to the University of Malawi. He was elected Fellow of the
Royal Society of Literature in 1968.
Francis Berry's poetic works include
Gospel of Fire (1933),
Snake in the Moon (1936),
The Iron Christ (1938),
Fall of a Tower and Other Poems (1943),
Murdock and Other Poems (1947),
The Galloping Centaur (1952),
Morant Bay and Other Poems (1961),
Ghosts of Greenland (1966), and
From the Red Fort (1984). Berry has also
written radio plays such as
Illnesses and Ghosts at the West
Settlement(1965),
The Sirens (1966),
The Near Singing Dome (1971; revised as
The Singing Dome, published 1984), and
Eyre Remembers (1982), and has published one
novel,
I Tell of Greenland (1977). His
Collected Poems was published in 1994.
Berry's critical works include
Herbert Read (1953; revised 1961),
Poets' Grammar: Person, Time and Mood in
Poetry(1958),
Poetry and the Physical Voice (1962), and
The Shakespeare Inset: Word and Picture
(1965; revised 1971). Two of his lectures,
John Masefield: The Narrative Poet (1968)
and
Thoughts on Poetic Time (1972), have also
been published. He edited issue 22 of
Essays and Studies in 1969 and contributed
essays and reviews to various publications throughout his career.
Scope and Contents
The papers of Francis Berry, ca. 1928-1961, document Berry's development
as a poet from his earliest poetic endeavors to his mature creations and also
document his concerns as a critic of poetry. The papers are divided into two
series: Poetry and Drama, ca. 1928-ca. 1957; and Critical Works, ca. 1953-1961.
The Poetry series consists of manuscripts of Berry's poetry and verse drama,
including some unpublished work, arranged alphabetically by title. There are
holograph and typed drafts of published poems, most signed and some dated by
the author, from
Snake in the Moon, Fall of a Tower, The Galloping
Centaur, and
Morant Bay and Other Poems as well as
fragments of
The Iron Christ. Berry's unpublished poems
are also well represented. There are proof copies of
Snake in the Moon and
Murdock and Other Poems. Berry's published
and unpublished verse drama is represented by the following works:
Beauty and the Beast,
Conversation Piece,
The Death of Beowulf,
Hans and Gretchen,
The Harpies, and
The Sleeping Beauty.
Also included in this series is correspondence consisting of three
letters of reference for Berry and two letters from Berry to G. Wilson
Knight.
The Critical Works series consists of manuscripts of Berry's critical
assessments of specific writers and technical studies of the mechanics of
poetic creation. There are holograph and typed notes and drafts of most of
Berry's major academic work, including
Herbert Read,
Poetry and the Physical Voice,
Poets' Grammar: Person, Time and Mood in
Poetry, and
Shelley and the Future Tense, an article
published in
Orpheus. This series is also arranged
alphabetically by title.
Additional Francis Berry materials may be found in the following HRHRC
collections: Edmund Charles Blunden, Richard Church, John Lehmann, Edward
Lucie-Smith, Christopher Darlington Morley, Dame Edith Sitwell, and Henry
Treece.
Acquisition
Purchase, 1964
Access
Open for research
Processed by
Robert Kendrick, 1994
Index Terms
Subjects
English poetry--20th
century
English poetry--History and
criticism
Read, Herbert Edward, Sir,
1893-1968
Document Types
First drafts
Galley proofs
References
Contemporary Poets. New York: St.
Martin's Press, 1985.
Hobsbaum, Philip.
Tradition and Experiment in English
Poetry.London: Macmillan, 1979.
Knight, G. Wilson.
Francis Berry. In
Neglected Powers: Essays on Nineteenth and
Twentieth Century Literature. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul,
1971.
Francis Berry Papers--Folder List
Series I. Poetry and Drama,
ca. 1928-ca. 1957
1
1
A-D
Ares and Aries
Beauty and the Beast
Bil's Journey South
Cardiac Confidence
Church's Lightning
Conductor
The Climber--see
The Elm
Closed Works
The Coming Year
Conversation--see
The Elm
Conversation Piece
Coventry
Cremation
Damp Air
A Day in Summer
The Death of Beowulf
The Devil
1
2
E-J
Easter
Eighteen
The Elm and 5 other poems:
Conversation,
The Climber,
Nihil, Nullus, Non,
9th Hour,
Prophecy
End of Another Summer
Esplanade
Evidence of Scienter
For Birthe Lieberkind
A Fork's a Fork
Friday: Lascaux
The Hanging of One
Hudders
Hans and Gretchen
The Harpies
Heart's Spark
Idol, a Tree
In Honour of London
Intoxication
The Iron Christ
The Iron Horse
El JardÃn del Arcipreste
translated as
The Garden of the
Archpriest
1
3
L-W
Lama Sabacthani?
Lines for a Christmas
Card
Lines in Imitation of Gerard Manley
Hopkins
Maritime
The Miracles and
Mysteries
Morant Bay
Murdock and Other Poems
A Naming of Wicked
Ones
Nihil, Nullus, Non--see
The Elm
Nihility
9th Hour--see
The Elm
Nocturne
November
Opposite Moods
Ordeal
Passing Shores Once
Visited
Phoenix
The Plagues, Passover, and Exodus from
Egypt
Prophecy--see also
The Elm
A Recognition to G. Wilson
Knight
Release
The Rival Cousins
Russia
Sebastian
The Sleeping Beauty
Snake in the Moon
Snap-Shot
South Again After
North
Spain, 1939: From
Devon
The Spleen Sickness
Sunrise
To--
The Tomb
Train Talk
The Week's Good Cause
1
4
Correspondence,
1934-1959, nd
Series II. Critical Works,
ca. 1953-1961
1
5
Herbert Read [book, 1953]. Draft,
nd
Poetry and the Physical Voice [book,
1962]
1
6
Preliminary notes and observations, nd; and
correspondence,
1958
1
7-8
Holograph draft in 14 notebooks,
1959
2
1
Holograph and typed draft,
nd
2
2
Typed draft,
nd
2
3-4
Final draft,
1961
2
5
Page proofs,
1961
Galleys--removed to Galley Files
Poets' Grammar [book,
1958]
2
6
Notes and fragments,
nd
2
7-8
Holograph draft,
nd
3
1-2
Typed and holograph draft,
1956, nd
3
3-4
Final draft,
nd
3
5
Author's corrected typescript, bound,
nd
3
6
Page proofs,
[1958?]
Shelley and the Future Tense [essay,
1955]
3
7
Draft, nd; and issue of
Orpheus with essay, titled
Shelley and the Action of Hope,
1955
Francis Berry Papers--Index of Correspondents
- Burns, Kevin--1.4
- Hainsworth, John--1.6
- Knight, G. Wilson--1.4
- Strickland, Mabel (
Times of Malta)--1.4
- Warren, E. (Malta Amateur Dramatic Club)--1.4