Anthony Burgess was born John Anthony Burgess Wilson on February 25, 1917, in Manchester, England. His mother and young sister died of influenza in 1919, leaving Burgess to a blue collar upbringing by his father--a cashier and piano player--an aunt, and later a stepmother. As a child, Burgess was made keenly aware of his Irish Catholic heritage and his education at the parochial Xaverian College instilled an interest in theological themes of good and evil, free will, and social authority which appeared in much of his writing years later.
Burgess entered Manchester University in 1936 with the intention of studying music. Poor grades in physics blocked his acceptance into the Music Department, so he chose instead to focus on composition and language in Manchester's English Department. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1940, he entered the Royal Army Medical Corps, later transferring to the Education Corps. In 1942 he married Llewela Isherwood Jones, whom he first met when both were students at Manchester.
Burgess remained in the Army until 1946, serving in Gibraltar. After the war, he held teaching positions with Birmingham University, the Ministry of Education, and Banbury Grammar School. In 1954 he accepted a position with the Colonial Office teaching in Malaya and later Brunei.
While in Malaya, Burgess published his first novels,
In 1959 Burgess was sent back to England and released from the Colonial Office after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. Troubled by the thought of leaving his wife without income, he wrote five novels in the next year and a total of eleven by 1964. These include
During the following years, Burgess continued to prove his doctors' prognoses wrong and claimed to write 2,000 words of fair copy per day. He supplemented the income from his novels with literary reviews and essays for numerous newspapers and magazines. He also produced non-fiction books on English literature, linguistics, and the works of James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, and William Shakespeare.
In 1968 Llewela died after years of poor health. Later that year Burgess discovered he had a four-year-old son by Liana Macellari, who he soon married. The three moved to Malta to avoid high British income taxes, and later to Italy and then Monaco. From 1969 to 1973 Burgess held a series of visiting instructor positions at the University of North Carolina, Columbia, Princeton, and City College in New York.
By 1970 Burgess was well known in Britain and Europe for his satirical style and linguistic inventiveness. In 1971 his notoriety grew in America with the release of the movie version of
By the early 1990s Burgess had written more than 60 books, over 150 musical compositions, and continued to publish articles and reviews worldwide. He died in 1993 at age 76, thirty-four years after receiving his one-year terminal diagnosis.
Typed and holograph manuscripts, sheet music, correspondence, clippings, financial statements, contracts and legal documents, appointment books, notes, magazines, and photographs document the life and work of Anthony Burgess from 1956 to 1997, with the bulk of the materials dating from the 1970s through the 1980s, his most productive years. The papers are organized into four series: I. Works, 1956-1993, n.d. (67 boxes, 2 galley folders, 14 oversize boxes); II. Correspondence, 1968-1995, n.d. (15 boxes); III. Contracts and Royalty Statements, 1956-1997, n.d. (11 boxes); and IV. Subject Files, 1962-1997, n.d. (40 boxes, 1 oversize box, 1 oversize folder).
The earliest materials consist mainly of copies of contracts for Burgess's early novels, and a small number of photographs sent by friends and former acquaintances. The material dated after Burgess's death in 1993 is primarily correspondence to and from his wife, Liana, and a few newspaper clippings.
The bulk of the papers comprise manuscript materials found in the Works series. Most of these materials are fair copy typescripts or photocopies of various drafts of novels, articles, reviews, and musical works. While there are no manuscripts for Burgess's earliest works, including
Correspondence is found throughout the papers, but is concentrated in the Correspondence series. Letters in Series IV. Subject Files relate to specific topics. Correspondence in the Works series primarily documents the development of the particular piece to which it relates, as does correspondence in Series III. Contracts and Royalty Statements.
The majority of the Burgess material is in English, but there are large amounts of materials in foreign languages including Italian, French, Swedish, Polish, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and Malay.
Gift 1995 (G13507); Purchase, 1997 (R13998), 1999 (R14404)
Open for research
Stephen Mielke, Dell Hollingsworth, 1999-2000
The Works Series documents Burgess's literary and musical activities with manuscripts and small amounts of correspondence. There are few examples of holograph manuscripts, one exception being a desk calendar containing a draft of
Materials are divided into four subseries reflecting Burgess's own organization: A. Extended, B. Articles and Reviews, C. Introductions, and D. Music. Some works, such as
This subseries consists of various manuscript forms of novels,
academic works, short stories, biographies, children's books, translations, and
radio, television and film scripts. Arrangement is alphabetical by title, and
includes over ninety separate works, some unfinished or unpublished. Materials
for foreign, alternate, or working titles are included under the main title and
several short stories are listed together under the heading
There is little manuscript material for works before 1970--the earliest item is original artwork for the dust jacket of the 1956 novel
Among the motion picture scripts are an unused submission Burgess wrote for the James Bond film
Incomplete manuscript fragments for
Voluminous files of articles and reviews in Subseries B. give evidence to Burgess's prolific writing during the later part of his life. Burgess stated that as a novelist he had to produce book reviews and newspaper and magazine articles to supplement his meager income.
These journalistic writings are arranged in three groups reflecting Burgess's filing systems. First there is a group filed in alphabetical order by the publication title, with major publications followed by another alphabetical grouping of smaller publications. These date roughly from the late 1970s to the mid 1980s. This is followed by materials stored in binders and labeled I-IV and VII-XI. These are in rough chronological order and date mostly from the early to late 1980s. Finally, there are several boxes of articles that are indexed. These date from the mid 1980s to the early 1990s. There is much overlap and duplication between these three arrangements and further duplication found in the files for Burgess's published compilation of articles,
This is the smallest of the subseries contained in the Works series and consists largely of typed drafts and photocopies of printed introductions that Burgess wrote for works by other authors. Also included are introductions for television and radio programs, and comments made at conferences and other engagements.
The first five introductions are arranged alphabetically by title and include correspondence to and from authors or publishers of the works. The remaining introductions are in rough chronological order and are listed in an index located in the front of Box 66, Folder 8.
Music manuscripts in the Burgess papers are housed separately and are described in Appendix A., pending further organization and description.
Series II. contains Burgess's personal and professional correspondence from 1968 to 1995 with the bulk dating from the 1970s through the 1980s. The original filing schemes have been maintained as have the original file headings. Arrangement is either chronological or alphabetical. There is much overlap in Burgess's organization within this series. Correspondence from individuals or on specific topics can often be found in more than one location. This is likely due to the period of time that the correspondence covers. Between the late 1960s and the early 1990s, Burgess moved from England to Malta to Italy and then Monaco, with extended stays in the United States. The manner in which he maintained and used his correspondence changed over the years and between locations. His wife Liana also handled a great deal of his correspondence for him, and did not always maintain the letters in the same arrangement as her husband.
The majority of the correspondence is incoming with a large amounts
of third party correspondence, especially between Liana and Burgess's literary
agents, Gabriele Pantucci and Deborah Rogers. Outgoing letters are usually
filed with related incoming correspondence. Requests for autographs and
commentary on his works make up the bulk of the Fans and Colleagues file. Files
titled
Correspondence with other authors, such as Erica Jong and Graham Greene, frequently provides insight into their own works as well as Burgess's. Authors often wrote Burgess in response to his published reviews of their works or to comment on his latest novel.
Material found under the headings Volume I - Volume VI is likely retired correspondence separated from active files. At the front of each of these volumes is a typed index prepared by Liana Burgess.
Additional correspondence can be found throughout the Burgess papers, particularly in the Contracts and Royalty Statements series. Incoming correspondence is included in the index located at the end of this finding aid. Outgoing, third party, and general fan mail is not included in the index.
Series III. consists of legal and business documents relating to the
publication and translation of Burgess's works throughout the world. Materials
are arranged alphabetically by title of work or by general headings, such as
There is some overlap with material found in other series. Contracts for
Series IV. contains the most varied materials in the collection,
including clippings, correspondence, serial publications, publishers catalogs,
photographs, works by others, bibliographies, biographical information,
appointment and address books, notes and notebooks, scrapbooks, newsletters,
and pamphlets. Materials are arranged alphabetically by topical heading. There
is sometimes overlap between files, such as related correspondence and
clippings located under
Burgess's works are represented in this series largely by clippings
of reviews, with small and scattered amounts of correspondence and manuscript
fragments. These files are arranged alphabetically by the title of each work,
under the main heading
Most files contain general research material, including notes,
clippings, and correspondence. The file for