Finding Aid
Box 1:
London and the C.L.R.P. [n.d.] TMS 119 pp., Foreword 2 pp. Signed by the author.
The enemy in the blanket. 1958. TMS 138 pp. Printer's copy.
Beds in the east. 1959. TMS 148 pp., with some revisions, Printer's copy.
A clockwork orange. 1962. TMS 157 pp. Printer's copy.
Honey for the bears. 1963. TMS 220 pp. Printer's copy.
Inside Mr. Enderby. 1963. TMS 200 pp. Printer's copy.
Box 2:
Nothing Like the Sun. 1964. TMS pp. 41-49 (incomplete; roughly corresponds to pp. 56- 70 in published version)
The Eve of Saint Venus. A Tale. 1964. TMS 98 pp. (see also Play manuscripts, same title, in Box 4)
Language made plain. 1964. TMS Chapters 1- 2, 17 pp. (incomplete)
A vision of battlements. 1965. MS 121 pp., lacks p. 107
Here comes everybody. 1965. TMS 291 pp., signed by the author.
Tremor of intent. Vol. 1. 1966 TMS, corrected 196 pp. (printer's copy)
Tremor of intent. Vol. 2. 1966 TMS, corrected 95 pp. (printer's copy signed by the author)
The novel now. 1967 TMS, corrected 164 pp., table of contents and preface. 2 pp., Chapt. 1 TMS (car) 8 pp.
Box 3:
Enderby outside. 1968 TMS (photocopy) 193 pp. Printer's copy.
Shakespeare. 1970 TMS 229 pp., Foreword 2 pp., Prologue 3 pp. (first entitled The World of William Shakespeare) Printer's copy.
MF 1971 TMS 202 pp., with some minor corrections.
1985. 1978 TMS (photocopy) with corrections. 200 pp. Printer's copy.
Box 4:
The eve of St. Venus. The Pursuit of Adonis. 1964. Comedy in 3 acts. TMS 98 pp.
Love from Olympus. (also called The eve of St. Venus), Fantasy in 3 acts. TMS (car.) 69 pp.
Wine of the Country TMS 27 pp.
The Music of Exile 1967 B.B.C First draft, TMS. 14 pp., annotated by the director. Second draft, production script, revised. 19 pp.
Box 4:
Letters to Professor Christopher Ricks re Burgess'contribution ("Dubbing") to The State of the Language, Leonard Michaels and Christopher Ricks, eds. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980) and Burgess' inability to attend the ENSPUN (English-Speaking Union) Conference in San Francisco.
TLs June 7, 1978
TLs June 29, 1978
TLs December 1, 1978
ALS June 20, 1979
Box 4:
"Preludes"
Autograph music manuscript
six short pieces:
I Modere
II Tres Modare
III vivo
IV Maestoso
V Molto Lento, ma Grazioso
VI Energetico
Includes passages of atonality and bitonality. Notated with a black felt-tip pen on six two-stave systems, the final page of the last piece cancelled and a single two-stave line added, perhaps intended to complete the work ("Fuga-harpsichord"). The addition and brief notations throughout the ms. have been written in blue ball-point pen.
Folio, 23 x 31 cm. Beige wrappers, inscribed on the front verso, "Preludes Anthony Burgess, Etchingham, 1964," back wrapper lacking bottom right corner section. 11 pp. of 16 pp. used, the central bifolium (pp.7-10) loose and separate.
Box 4:
Letter to William Cole, pmk. 14 March 1970
Box 4:
The following material comes from Ms Ceridwen Looker. Her mother's sister Lynne was Anthony Burgess' first wife. Lynne died in 1965. In the late 1950's Burgess began a correspondence with Ceridwen's cat Cleo in the literary guise of his Siamese cat Lalage. In the first surviving letter Lalage Introduces "my maid Suke" (the Burgesses' mongrel bitch) who thereafter takes over the correspondence.
Burgess's casual invention of an appropriate canine argot which seems to develop through the series prefigures the sublime achievement of the prose of Clockwork Orange. There are a few phrases strikingly analogous to pieces in Clockwork Orange. For example, in letter 7 below the harsh sentimentality of home picked up when Alex is released and after he is beaten. The writer's house is even called Home. In letter 3 a bitter attack on England, the lower orders, Americans, Germans and politicians is made. The abstruse reference to the insidious rot of pelagian liberalism is precisely the over-riding locus of the 1962 novel. The amoral cultural imperialism of American pop culture; education focused on the lowest common denominator. The descent into a culture of blame and the abnegation of moral responsibility. Who knows what prompted this outburst in this context but the major themes of Burgess' work at this time are present here.
1 Typed letter; 1 p. How she is "very much enjoying my holiday in wales" but bemoaning her separation from male company. "missis has promised...[to] arrange an introduction to 8 siamese of good family". The "silly tommy from across the way who is no class at all and completely beneath my notice".
2 Typed letter signed ["Suky" shakily in ink; 2 pp. "I am a mongrel wotever that is but kind arts is more than coronets is wot I say". Suky describes Burgess as "lankashire he is a bit of all rite a bloody toff. She has made friends on holiday "some smashin dogs ere altho they all spekes funny look at them bones by there man ... there's smashin that tree is". She closes with a intricate joke about belonging formerly to the double bass player at the "Alle Orkestra".
3 Typed, letter; 1 pp, entitled Report from the Canine Front. Suky voices her grievances regarding political Britain "I can still rite as wel as all these kids wot gets free state edjucashon and infests rodes and buses with there bad manners spiv filosofy an graceles ugliness". She describes politics as "the poor mans diversion an the nestfetherers rackit". She bemoans the loss of naval independence rations in England. The "bludy dachsunds in berlin growin fat" while she starves. She closes with "roll on deth or the nex election down with pelagian liberalism suky". Lynne appends a holograph post-script requesting details of a proposed visit.
4 Typed letter; 1 p. Suky apologises for the "long silens". "I ave ad pups wich as kep me from my usyel roo teen." Suky displays an inchoate feminism: "Its the same the ole world over its the males as gets the good times and the bitches gets the blame an the pups". She asserts "bark" to have been "a dog composer". She notes that after Christmas her pups will cease to depend "an I go out an start the bleedin life sicle again cor schopenhauer was rite". Lalage appends a pencil postscript in Siamese script though signed with Latin letters.
5 Holograph letter signed (suky); 1 p. [On verso of the final leaf of a Christmas letter from Burgess (signed John). "Agnes, my step sister...has been very ill and Sheila...collapsed from overwork"] Suky is exerized by new restrictions to playing with the other dogs. Something to do with puppies wich is bludy stoopid as they come weeks nay months after ... "it is a shame they keep me in wen I am most popular with the lokal dogs". She hopes "things is beter in the noo year".
6 Holograph letter signed (suky & paw-print); 1 p. Suky gives her name in Greek characters and muses on walks and water, fishing, and pubs. "goln ome in 9 bus wich costs 3 d for me an the same for them". As always she grumbles about Lalage.
7 Holograph letter signed [paw-print]: 2 pp. Suky discourses on the joys of returning home. She is "very glad to be ome as ow ther is no place lik ome". Happy to have left the culinary wasteland of "lincansher" she recalls, "wen we was comin up mounzy road I sudingly reconized as ow were I was ..."; "the boss" she remarks "is growin a beard".
8 Holograph letter signed [suky]; 2 pp. Suky has been unwell, "not eatin like an very shaky on my paws". She is glad to have heard Ceridwen is settled, "but it is a pity you ave left wales where ther was good dogs wot spoke funny an was all rite". She closes this final letter, "the boss who is all right an as a berd like a animal sends is love an I will stop ritin now suky".
9 Typed letter signed [Liz & John]; 1 p., Glebe St. address. To Hazel, Bill, Ceridwen, animals. A brief note from Burgess and his second wife enclosing a Sunday Times article (not present).
10 Typed letter signed (John): 1 p. Lija, Malta, Dec. 6, 1968. To Hazel, Bill, Ceridwen. A moving letter which addresses the death of Lynne: I'm very happy now. It's a hard thing to say, but the last years--indeed, the whole period from leaving Borneo were pretty tough. I did my best but my best wasn't good enough, I'm afraid ... I've made a new start ... It's not fair perhaps, but what in life is? And I must live my life.
11 Holograph music manuscript signed John Burgess Wilson. A bifollate. Title + 2 pp + 1 p. Wiegenlied (Berceuse) (Cradlesong). With Burgess holograph dedication, "to C[eridwen]. Looker 30th Aug. 1952". Some light verbal notation, a few minor correction and the epigram Ithyphalliques et pioupiesques, leurs insultes l'ont deprave. Rimbaud. Written to commemorate his niece's birth. On the last side is another holograph score with some minor correction.
12 letters and post cards, 1966-1971 from Burgess to Will Ready, McMaster University Librarian; 3 letters from Ready to Burgess, 1967-1968. One letter from Burgess to Susan Bellingham of McMaster University Research Collections.
Typed letter, 9 May 1964, not signed, from Burgess to Peter [ ], presumably of Sidgwick and Jackson, re A Vision of Battlements.
1 b&w photograph of Burgess, n.d.; 1 photoprint of Burgess, from the International Portrait Gallery
