Correspondence, typescript drafts, handwritten notes, photographs, clippings, drawings, address books, date books, calendars, and diaries document the life and work of Sybille Bedford from the early 1940s through the beginning of the twenty-first century. The papers are organized in three series: I. Works, 1941-2001, nd (18 boxes); II. Correspondence, 1914-2001, nd (26 boxes); and III. Subject Files, 1919-1999, nd (8 boxes).
Bedford's 1989 novel Jigsaw is also well documented with various drafts and proofs of the text. These files also include publisher's correspondence and corrections, and congratulatory correspondence regarding the book's nomination for the Booker Prize. Publicity material for a 2001 reprint of Jigsaw with A Legacy is located in the file for Counterpoint Press.
Files for Bedford's 1990 compilation of previously published articles on food, travel, and the legal system, titled As It Was, contain original typescripts and tearsheets dating back to 1959. Materials for these articles, such as the 1966 Saturday Evening Post article "The Worst that Ever Happened" are also located under their own title.
Works files are arranged alphabetically by title, except for several articles grouped together under the heading "Travel Pieces." Clippings and correspondence related to A Visit to Don Otavio are located under the works original publication title: The Sudden View: A Mexican Journey.
As in the other series, the vast majority of the works are in English, Bedford's preferred language for writing, and overall in very good condition.
Outgoing correspondence is arranged alphabetically by recipient name with the bulk consisting of letters to Evelyn Gendel, Eda Lord, and Allanah Harper. Bedford and Lord were partners from 1955 until Lord's death in 1976 and Bedford acted as executor for her estate. She was also executor for Gendel and Harper, and likely retrieved these letters after their deaths.
Bedford's letters relate her daily activities, contacts with other friends, and progress on her work. Generally several pages or more in length, they are often quite personal, expressing strong feelings of love and friendship.
Incoming correspondence includes fan mail, invitations, birthday and holiday greetings, business and publisher's correspondence, and personal letters reflective of those found in Bedford's outgoing correspondence. The bulk consists of letters from Bedford's friends and colleagues with letters labeled "Personal" in alphabetical order and letters labeled "Private" in chronological order. There is great overlap between these headings, both in the nature of the correspondence and in the individual writers.
Included in the incoming correspondence are letters from Ivy Compton-Burnett, Elizabeth David, M. F. K. Fisher, Martha Gellhorn, Graham Greene, Lord Snowdon, and Stephen Spender. Also included are a small number of letters addressed to both Sybille Bedford and Eda Lord, or to Eda Lord alone. Letters from Aldous Huxley and other Huxley family members are found with the incoming correspondence and in the Works series with the Aldous Huxley: A Biography materials.
Literary correspondence in the Incoming subseries is largely from Evelyn Gendel with some third party correspondence between Gendel and others. It also contains revisions and draft fragments of works discussed in accompanying correspondence. Small amounts of unidentified correspondence can be found throughout the incoming letters, but the bulk is grouped together at the end of the subseries.
The Family correspondence subseries consists of one folder of third party correspondence to and from Bedford's mother. This includes the earliest dated material in the papers, an unfinished letter from Bedford's mother written in 1914. However, the majority of the correspondence and other material in Bedford's papers date from the 1940s onward.
The Index of Correspondents included with this finding aid indicates the box and folder location of correspondence from each individual.
In addition to Lord, the subject files contain materials related to several other individuals. The Toni Muir file contains probate records and photographs of Bedford's long time friend. Probate records are also present for Eve Hermann and Evelyn Gendel. The Gendel file includes draft fragments for Gendel's Tortoise and Turtle Abroad, and notes and letters similar to those located in the incoming literary correspondence of Series II. A scrapbook on Allanah Harper contains clippings, letters, and a 1944 contract for her autobiography.
Snapshots and publicity photos are found throughout the Bedford papers, but a large group of photographs are located in the subject files. The bulk are carte-de-visite images of unidentified family members or family friends dating from around the 1900s. Also included are more recent photos of Bedford's friends from the 1950s through the 1990s.
Several folders of notebooks contain detailed records of expenses Bedford incurred while writing articles for various magazines. Other materials found in the subject files include invitations, menus, and notes related to wine tastings and dinners, interviews and biographical information, and a handwritten travel journal written in German and dating from 1919, likely created by Bedford's mother.
| Sybille Bedford Papers Finding Aid | ||||
| Title Page | Biographical Sketch |
Scope and Contents |
Folder List | Index of Correspondents |
Reference queries to: reference@hrc.utexas.edu
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