Descriptive Summary
The University of Texas at Austin, Harry Ransom Humanities
Research Center
Urquhart, Fred, 1912-1995
Fred Urquhart Papers
1935-1965
5 boxes (2.10 linear feet)
Scottish author Fred Urquhart
published numerous short stories and several novels, and also served as the editor
of several short story anthologies. His papers contain handwritten manuscripts and
typescript drafts of his literary works, as well as material related to his
editorial projects. Also present is Urquhart's personal correspondence with
contemporary authors such as Rhys Davies and Norah Hoult, and correspondence
documenting his editorial work.
English.
None
Biographical Sketch
Frederick Burrows Urquhart was born on July 12,
1912, in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is acknowledged as both a novelist and
short story writer, but achieved recognition from his short stories. Urquhart also
spent time editing and reviewing books. The constant theme of his stories centers
upon the lives of ordinary people, especially violence and cruelty towards women.
His education took place in village schools in Scotland until 1927, when
at fifteen he left school to work for a bookshop in Edinburgh. During this time he
began to write his first novel. He left the bookstore to concentrate on his writing
in 1935, and by 1938 this novel,
Time Will Knit, was published. Because he was a
declared pacifist, at the outbreak of World War II he was sent to work on the land.
At this time, his first collection of short stories, I Fell for a Sailor (1940), was
published, followed by his second collection of stories, The Clouds Are Big with Mercy (1946), and
his two later novels, The Ferret Was Abraham’s
Daughter (1949) and Jezebel’s Dust (1951). Further volumes of stories include
The Year of the Short Corn
(1949), The Last
Sister (1950), The
Laundry Girl and the People (1955), The Dying Stallion (1967), and The Ploughing Match
(1968). His final works were the novel Palace of Green Days (1979), which drew
upon his childhood in Perthshire where his father worked as a chauffeur, and a
collection of short stories, A Diver in
China Seas (1980).
In 1944 he began working at the estate of the Duke of
Bedford. This gave him the opportunity to meet the Scottish painters
Robert Colquhoun and Robert MacBryde,
and two literary notables, George Orwell and Rhys
Davies. Starting in 1947, Urquhart began work as a
reader for a London literary agency, and from 1951-1954 he
worked as a script-reader for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He was also
a reviewer for
Time and Tide and
other journals between 1947 and 1974 and a literary scout
for Walt Disney Productions
(1959-1960). As interest in the serious short story waned,
he took on a number of editing tasks for works such as W.S.C.: A Cartoon Biography (1955), which
consisted of political cartoons focusing on Winston Churchill,
and Scottish Short Stories
(1957).
In 1958 he moved to East Sussex with his companion, dancer
Peter Wyndham Allen, but when Allen died in
1990 Urquhart moved back to Scotland and settled in Musselburgh. He
died in Edinburgh on December 2, 1995.
Sources:
Contemporary Authors Online,
http://www.galegroup.com (Accessed 13 November, 2007)
Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography, http://www.oxforddnb.com (Accessed 13 November, 2007)
Scope and Contents
Literary works, correspondence, and printed material,
1935-1965, document the life and work of Scottish author
Fred Urquhart, including his literary production, editorial
projects, and role in contemporary literary circles. The material is arranged in two
series: I. Works, 1935-1965, and II. Correspondence,
1950-1964.
The literary works consist of typescripts and handwritten manuscripts of Urquhart’s
numerous short stories and two novels
Time
Will Knit and The Ferret Was
Abraham’s Daughter. Also included are drafts of introductions, notes,
ledgers, and book request slips illuminating Urquhart’s role as editor of two short
story anthologies, Scottish Short
Stories and Colour Book of
Scotland, and a comic anthology about Winston
Churchill, W.S.C.: A Cartoon
Biography. Galley proofs and manuscripts for the Cartoon Biography contain the cartoon captions but not
the cartoons. Drafts of a proposed serial, “The Beckoning Globe,” and a non-fiction
work, “A Bevy of Bad Women,” document Urquhart’s unsuccessful literary collaboration
with Louis Golding. The bulk of the literary material dates
between the years 1935 and 1949. The earliest manuscript,
“No Fields of Amaranth,” is dated 17 December 1935, and the latest,
“Water Water Wildflower,” 21 February 1965.
Notable in the Urquhart correspondence in Series II. are letters received from
authors Rhys Davies (69 items, 1953-1962) and Norah
Hoult (26 items, 1956-1963) that discuss contemporary writers such as
Frank Swinnerton, Ivy Compton-Burnet,
and A. J. Cronin. The majority of the correspondence documents
Urquhart’s editorial communications with authors, literary agents, and publishing
companies for the aforementioned anthologies. The correspondence with
Louis Golding includes clippings of Golding’s serial, “The
Ring Cycle,” which appeared in the
Daily
Sketch in March 1953. Individual correspondents represented
include J.R. Ackerley, Nancy Cunard,
Francis King, John Lehmann,
Sir Compton Mackenzie, Naomi
Mitchison, John Cowper Powys, Muriel
Spark, and Alan Sillitoe.
Acquisition:
Purchases, 1965-1970
Access:
Open for research
Processed by:
Shelley Rowland, Tan Tiantian, and Sarah Weinblatt, 2007
Fred Urquhart Papers--Folder List
Series I. Works, 1935-1965
(bulk
1935-1949)
1
1
A Cartoon Biography
(1955)
1
2
Collaboration between Fred Urquhart and Louis Golding,
1964, undated
1
3
Colour Book of Scotland
(1961)
1
4-5
The Ferret Was Abraham’s
Daughter
(1949)
1
6
Reviews, 1962, undated
1
7
Scottish Short Stories
(1957)
2
Short stories, 1935-1965
2
1
A-B
2
2
C-F
2
3
G-K
2
4
L
2
5
M
3
1
N
3
2
O-Q
3
3
R-T
3
4
U-Z
4
1-5
Time Will Knit
(1938)
Series II. Correspondence, 1950-1964
5
1
A Cartoon Biography,
1953-1955
5
2
Colour Book of
Scotland,
1960-1961
5
3
Davies, Rhys,
1953-1962
5
4
Golding, Louis,
1952-1954, 1963
5
5
Hoult, Norah,
1954-1963
5
6
Individuals, A-Z,
1950-1964
5
7-8
Scottish Short Stories
,
1956-1961
5
9
Time and Tide,
1951-1960
Fred Urquhart Papers--Index of Works
Alicky’s Watch--2.1
Allow the Lodger--2.1
Backgreen Concert--2.1
Bag Washing--2.1
Barbara of Shalott--2.1
The Barmaid with the Dirty Past--2.1
Beautiful Music--2.1
Being a Bohemian--2.1
The Big Apple--2.1
Big with Mercy--2.1
The Bike--2.1
Blackout--2.1
Call Me Blondie--2.2
<emph render="italic">A Cartoon Biography</emph>--1.1
The Christ Child--2.2
A Christmas in the Alps--2.2
Cleopatra Had Nothing On--2.2
<emph render="italic">Colour Book of Scotland</emph>--1.3
Cuckoo--2.2
A Day’s Shopping--2.2
Dirty Linen--2.2
Dirty Minnie--2.2
The Dream Book--2.2
The Eleventh March--2.2
English in Three Months--2.2
Excuse Me Cow--2.2
<emph render="italic">The Ferret was Abraham’s Daughter</emph>--1.4-5
The Flower Girl and the Mountie--2.2
For the Heathen--2.2
Gary’s Party--2.3
The Gay Gush Girls--2.3
Gentlemen, the Queen--2.3
Glamour Boy among the Neeps--2.3
Grandma Was a Land Girl--2.3
The Gulls--2.3
The Heretic--2.3
Highlanders--2.3
I Died Young--2.3
I Love Work--2.3
I Married Three Actresses--2.3
I’ll Join the Merchant Navy--2.3
It Always Rains in Glasgow--2.3
Jam for Gran--2.3
The Last Meet--2.4
The Last G.I. Bride Wore Tartan--2.4
The Last Sister--2.4
Lend Me Your Ears--2.4
Let Us Endure an Hour--2.4
Like Arrows in the Hands of a Giant--2.4
Local Boy Makes Good--2.4
The Lodger--2.4
The Loony--2.4
Lost to All But Heaven--2.4
Luncheon Is Served--2.4
Maggie Logie and the National Health--2.5
Man about the House--2.5
The Matinee--2.5
The Meeting--2.5
The Moley Was a Diddler--2.5
Namietnose or the Laundry Girl--3.1
Next Stop, Sailor--3.1
No Experience--3.1
No Fields of Amaranth--3.1
No Monopoly--3.1
No Second Key and Kafka--3.1
Nostalgia for a Waltz Dream--3.1
Not So Pretty Polly--3.1
Once Bitten--3.2
One Film Fan’s Story--3.2
The Platform Ticket--3.2
Polish for Passion/ Le Roi Est Mort--3.2
The Prisoners--3.2
Private War--3.2
Provide for Your Poor Sisters--3.2
Quiet Sunday--3.2
A Sailor Comes Home--3.3
The Sands of Dunkirk--3.3
<emph render="italic">Scottish Short Stories</emph>--1.7
Those Things Past--3.3
<emph render="italic">Time Will Knit</emph>--4.1-5
Tomorrow Will Be Beautiful--3.3
Tortoises Are So Affectionate--3.3
Tortoises Are So Affectionate--3.3
The Touring Tinker--3.3
Two Ladies--3.3
Washed in the Blood--3.4
Washing the Adjective of Copulation Bags--3.4
Water Water Wallflower--3.4
We Never Died in Winter--3.4
We Who Are About to Die--3.4
Week-end with Alistair--3.4
What’s to Become of Us All--3.4
Whoever Gets the Cross--3.4
Win Was Wild--3.4
The Year of the Short Corn--3.4
You Kill Me--3.4
You’re the Mean Type Mabel--3.4
You’re Not Franchot Tone?--3.4