Robert Briffault collection. -- 1934-1993. -- 60 cm of textual records, photographs, and microfilms. -- Contains typed transcripts of correspondence which begin in 1914.

Robert Briffault, novelist, social anthropologist, and surgeon, was born in Nice, France in 1876. He was educated at the University of Dunedin and Christ Church University and began medical practice in 1901 in New Zealand. In May 1896 he married Anna Clarke; the couple had three children, Lister, Muriel, and Joan, born from 1897 to 1901. After service on the Western Front during World War I, he settled in England, his wife having died. In the late 1920s he married again, to Herma Hoyt (1898-1981), an American writer and translator, best known for her English translations of modern French literature. The Brifffaults became clients of the literay agent William Bradley and were befriended by his wife, Jenny. Briffault is the author of several books, including The Mothers (1927) and Europa (1935). He died in Hastings, Sussex, England on 11 December 1948.

The collection is arranged into the following series: research materials, correspondence, photographs, microfilms, and published materials by and about Briffault. It is supplemented by books which have been catalogued for Archives and Research Collections. It was collected by Lawrence F. Koons and William Hixon in preparation for a biography of Briffault which was never written.
Researchers are also advised that there are two letters from Briffault to Bertrand Russell, Rec. Acq. 1,027.

Title based on content of collection.
Collection (13-1998) was acquired from Lawrence F. Koons in April 1998.
Finding aid available in hard copy and electronically.
There are no access restrictions.
Further accruals are not expected.

Contact: archives@mcmaster.ca
Last Reviewed: July 15, 2003
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