The Hesketh Pearson Papers document the career and personal life of the biographer and author of short stories, dramatic works, and travel books through correspondence, manuscripts, proofs, photographs, clippings, diaries, and notebooks. The papers were formerly in the possession of biographer Michael Holroyd, who served as Pearson's literary executor and, after the death of Pearson's widow Joyce in 1975, his heir; consequently the collection also includes papers and correspondence generated by Holroyd in these capacities. The papers are arranged in five series: Series I. Works, 1894-1982 (8 boxes); Series II. Correspondence, 1910-1963 (2 boxes); Series III. Personal, 1789-1959 (7 folders); Series IV. Joyce Pearson, 1964-1975 (2 folders); and Series V. Michael Holroyd, 1926-2001 (21 folders) .
The Pearson papers throw light on the working processes of a biographer: how subjects are chosen or abandoned, where and how biographical information is sought, negotiations with publishers, and the difficulties that can arise in dealing with subjects or their heirs. In addition, Pearson's correspondence and diaries are replete with opinions on literary, political, and religious topics as well as information on the subjects of his books, details of his working methods, information about his and his correspondents personal lives, and discussions of well-known figures living and dead, particularly in the fields of literature and theater.
The collection contains significant amounts of correspondence and research material concerning several of the subjects of Pearson's biographies: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, W. S. Gilbert, Frank Harris, Sir Walter Scott, Beerbohm Tree, and Oscar Wilde. Among the correspondents are A. P. Buckland-Plummer, Adrian Conan Doyle, Norman Charles Hunter, Hugh Kingsmill, Arthur Leonard Ross, Robert Sherard, and P. G. Wodehouse.
The purchase also included almost one hundred books, about two-thirds of which are by Pearson and the rest primarily by Hugh Kingsmill. Many of Pearson's copies of his own books bear his handwritten emendations to the text, which may or may not have been incorporated into subsequent editions. All books were transferred to the Ransom Center Library.
Elsewhere in the Ransom Center (in the George Bernard Shaw Collection) is the typescript of Pearson's biography of Shaw, G.B.S.: A Full Length Portrait (1942), with extensive corrections and additions in Shaw's handwriting. A large number of letters from Shaw to Pearson and a few from Pearson to Shaw are in the same collection. The Frank Harris Collection also contains Pearson correspondence. About forty theater programs from 1880 to 1932, mostly documenting Pearson's career as an actor, were transferred to the Performing Arts Collection at the Ransom Center; a detailed listing is available on request.
Letters from Pearson to his publishers and to other correspondents such as Shaw are housed at the University of Bristol Library and at Cornell University. Handwritten manuscripts of many of his books are at Northwestern University Library.
| Hesketh Pearson Papers Finding Aid | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Title Page | Biographical Sketch |
Scope and Contents |
Series Descriptions |
Folder List | Index of Correspondents |
Reference queries to: reference@hrc.utexas.edu
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