Descriptive Summary
Cooper, William,
1910-
William Cooper Papers
1937-1991
TXRC96-A13
6 boxes, 1 oversize folder,
and 3 scrapbooks (2.5 linear feet)
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center,
University of Texas at Austin
The William Cooper
(pseudonym of Harry Summerfield Hoff) papers consist of holograph and
typescript drafts, notebooks, page proofs, clippings, and a few items of
correspondence. The collection consists primarily of drafts of works published
1982-1991. Among these are
Scenes from Metropolitan Life,
Scenes from Later Life,
From Early Life, and
Immortality at Any Price.
English.
Biographical Sketch
William Cooper is a British writer of novels, plays, and non-fiction,
who was born Harry Summerfield Hoff on August 4, 1910, in Crewe, England.
Cooper earned his M. A. degree from Christ's College at Cambridge University in
1933. The son of two teachers, Cooper taught in Leicester, England from 1933 to
1940. After serving in the Royal Air Force during World War II, Cooper held a
variety of civil service positions, including assistant commissioner of the
Civil Service Commission (1945-1958), part-time personnel consultant for the
Atomic Energy Authority (1958-1971) and the Central Electricity Generating
Board (1960-1971), and assistant director of the Civil Service Selection Board
(1971-1975). From 1977 to 1988, Cooper held the position of adjunct professor
at the London Center of Syracuse University. Cooper married Joyce Barbara
Harris in 1951. They have two daughters, Louisa and Catherine.
The majority of Cooper's published work has been fiction. Early in his
career as H. S. Hoff, he published
Trina (1934; published in the U. S. as
It Happened in PRK),
Rhea (1935),
Lisa (1937), and
Three Marriages (1946). Among the novels
published under the pseudonym William Cooper are
The Struggles of Albert Woods (1953),
The Ever-Interesting Topic (1954),
Disquiet and Peace (1956),
Young People (1958),
You're Not Alone (1976),
From Early Life (1990), and
Immortality at Any Price (1991). Forming the
series Scenes from Life are the novels
Scenes from Provincial Life (1950),
Scenes from Married Life (1961),
Scenes from Metropolitan Life (1982), and
Scenes from Later Life (1983).
Interestingly,
Scenes from Metropolitan Life, the second
novel in the series, languished unpublished in a bank vault for over thirty
years because of threatened legal action for libel. Cooper has also written a
play,
Prince Genji (1950), the non-fiction
Shall We Ever Know? The Trial of the Hosein Brothers
for the Murder of Mrs. McKay (1971), and a pamphlet on his friend C. P.
Snow for the series Writers and Their Work.
Scope and Contents
The collection consists of holograph and typescript drafts, notebooks,
page proofs, clippings, and a few items of correspondence. The collection is
arranged in two series: I. Works, 1977-1989 (5.5 boxes, 1 oversize folder); II.
Reviews and Articles re Cooper, 1937-1991 (0.5 boxes, 3 bound volumes). Both
series are arranged chronologically.
The collection consists primarily of holograph and typescript drafts of
works published 1982-1991. Among these are
Scenes from Metropolitan Life,
Scenes from Later Life,
From Early Life, and
Immortality at Any Price.
Scenes from Metropolitan Life is represented
only by a typescript printer's copy.
Scenes from Later Life includes a holograph
draft in four notebooks, notes, three typescript drafts with copious holograph
revisions and revised sheets, and a typescript printer's copy.
From Early Life includes a holograph draft
in two notebooks and loose sheets, two typescripts with revisions and multiple
revised sheets, and a typescript printer's copy. For
Immortality at Any Price, there are eight
notebooks containing a holograph draft with revisions and three typescript
drafts with revisions and multiple revised sheets, including a final draft. In
addition, there are corrected typescripts for the biographical essay,
A History, revised page proofs, and
correspondence from Bill Buford concerning the essay's revision for publication
in
Granta. There are also revised typescripts
of other essays.
Cooper's intense process of revision led him to retype and revise by
hand multiple copies of single sheets. Each of the early drafts in this
collection may have multiple copies of various pages. These materials were
received without any apparent logical arrangement of revised sheets within each
title; that is, revisions of a single sheet were not necessarily filed
together. As this is apparently the author's original working order, no attempt
has been made to collocate multiple revised sheets.
There are also four notebooks, containing clippings of book reviews of
Cooper's work, articles on Cooper, and interviews, 1946-1991. The notebooks
also contain two pieces of correspondence and an adaptation of the book
Shall We Ever Know? published in the
Liverpool Daily Post. In addition, there is
a folder of early clippings (1937, nd) concerning the work of H. S. Hoff, which
are mounted on sheets.
The material described in this inventory is complemented by an earlier
and larger acquisition of Cooper manuscripts. For access to these other
manuscripts, consult the card catalog under Cooper's real name, Harry
Summerfield Hoff.
Acquisition
Purchase, 1991 (R12423, R14294)
Access
Open for research
Processed by
Robert Kendrick, 1996
Index Terms
Subjects
English fiction -- 20th
century
Document Types
First drafts
William Cooper--Folder List
Series I. Works,
1977-1989
1
1
Essays. Typescripts with revisions,
nd
1
2-3
Scenes from Metropolitan Life
[novel, 1982]. Typescript, printer's copy,
nd
Scenes from Later Life [novel,
1983]
1
4-5
Four notebooks containing holograph draft,
1977-1979, nd
1
6
Notes and typescript with holograph revisions and typed
revised sheets,
nd
2
1-4
Notes and typescript with holograph revisions and typed
revised sheets,
nd
2
5-6
Typescript 2, with typed revised sheets,
Dec. 1982
2
7
Typescript 3, with revisions,
Dec. 1982
3
1
Typescript 3, with revisions,
Dec. 1982
3
2-4
Typescript, printer's copy,
nd
A History [biographical essay,
1989]
3
5
Typescripts with revisions, and correspondence,
1989
Two sets of page proofs with revisions,
1989
(removed to oversize flat files)
From Early Life [autobiographical
novel, 1990]
3
6
Two notebooks and single sheets containing holograph
draft,
March 1987, nd
3
7-8
Typescripts, with revisions,
nd
4
1
Typescript, printer's copy,
nd
4
2
Typescript, called
Top copy, with revisions,
nd
Immortality at Any Price [novel,
1991]
4
3-7
Eight notebooks containing holograph draft with
revisions,
nd
5
1-3
Typescript, with revised sheets,
1983-1989
5
4-6
Typescript, with revised sheets,
1988-1989
6
1-2
Typescript final draft,
nd
Series II. Reviews and Articles re Cooper,
1937-1991
6
3
Clippings mounted on sheets,
1937, nd
Scrapbooks
1946-1953
(bound volume)
1953-1964
(bound volume)
1961-1989
(bound volume)
6
4
1990-1991
William Cooper--Index of Correspondents
- Allen, Mary (BBC)--Scrapbook, 1946-1953
- Buford, Bill (
Granta)--6.1
- Herbert, Roy (
New Scientist)--Scrapbook,
1961-1989