| Level | Fonds |
| Finding Number (Click this to use the hierarchy browser to access the full catalogue) | MS840 |
| Title | Papers of Philip Callow, writer |
| Extent | 2 standard boxes, 1 outsize box |
| Date | c 1951-2004 |
| Image (Click this image to open a larger image; click the larger image to magnify the detail). | +I.Jpg&type=RecordThumbnail)
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| Description | Literary and personal papers arranged in three series: works; correspondence and artwork. Largely consisting of typescript notes and papers relating to Philip Callow's literary work including drafts of poetic work, Callow's second autobiography entitled, 'Passage from home: a memoir' [published Nottingham : Shoestring Press, 2002] and the [radio] play, 'The Lamb'; with some manuscript notes and amendments. Also including a draft of [Callow's] application to the Royal Literary Fund, dated June 1988, with an initialled copy of a letter of support from Stanley Middleton (1919-2009) dated July 1988 and watercolours, and artwork in other media, by Philip Callow; most of the artworks are undated, the dated items are from [19]51-[19]52 and [20]03-2004. |
| Arrangement | The collection has only been sorted in a preliminary way as part of the accessioning process. The original arrangement of the papers has largely been retained with the exception of two items of correspondence which were found in a folder labelled, 'Drafts of poems - Nightshade' and subsequently filed separately. To assist with future sorting, cuttings from the original folders (indicating contents) were retained when the contents were transferred to archival quality folders during accessioning. |
| Access Conditions | Access to all registered researchers |
| Copyright | Permission to make any published use of any material from the collection must be sought in advance in writing from the Director of Special Collections (email: special-collections@bham.ac.uk). Identification of copyright holders of unpublished material is often difficult. Special Collections will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material. |
| Language | English |
| Finding Aids | This is a preliminary description and will be enhanced at a future date. |
| Access Status | Open |
| Creator Name | Callow, Philip Kenneth, 1924-2007, writer |
| Administrative History | Philip Callow, novelist, poet and biographer, was born in Stechford, Birmingham, 26 October 1924. Son of a clerk, he was educated at Broadway Secondary School and Coventry Technical College followed by an apprenticeship at Coventry Gauge and Tool Company in 1939. He lived in Leamington Spa during the Second World War before moving to Nottingham. His Midlands, working class roots were to feature strongly in his writing. After Nottingham, he moved to Plymouth working as a clerk and then training as a teacher at Exmouth College of Education in the mid 1960s before moving north again, this time to Yorkshire. From 1980-1986, he was writer in residence at Sheffield Polytechnic and continued to give courses on creative writing including a stint working with fellow novelist, Stanley Middleton, who was to become a close friend. In 1952, he married his first wife, Irene Christian Vallance with whom he had a daughter, Fleur Alyse Harvey; from 1974-1987 he was married to Penelope Jane Newman; he married Anne Jennifer Golby in 1987. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and received an honorary masters degree from Nottingham Trent University in 2004.
Callow's first novel, 'The Hosanna Man', was published to critical acclaim in 1956. This was followed by 15 further novels, including the Midlands trilogy 'Going to the Moon' 1968, 'The Bliss Body' 1969 and 'Flesh of Morning' 1971, short stories, plays for radio and television and, between 1961 and 2004, a number of volumes of poetry, including:
1961: 'Five: new poems' (Chippenham: Elegreba Press);
1964: 'Turning Point' (London);
1964: 'The Real Life. New poems' (Times Press: Douglas, Anthony Gibbs and Phillips: London);
1971: 'Bare Wires' (London: Chatto and Windus: Hogarth Press);
1976: 'Homage to the dancers' (Haworth: Haworth Press);
1976: 'New York insomnia' (Haworth, West Yorkshire: Haworth Press);
1981: 'Cave Light' (Bradford: Rivelin Press);
c 1984: 'New York insomnia: and other poems' (London: Rivelin Grapheme);
1987: 'Icons' (Bradford: Blue Bridge);
1990: 'Soliloquies of an eye: poems' (Todmorden: Littlewood);
1991: 'Notes over a chasm' (Bradford: Redbeck Press);
1994: 'Fires in October' (Bradford: Redbeck);
1998: 'Nightshade and Morning Glory' (Bradford: Redbeck Press);
2000: 'Testimonies: new and selected poems' (Nottingham: Shoestring Press);
2004: 'Pastoral: new poems' (Nottingham : Shoestring Press).
Callow's biographies reflected his own creative interests, beginning with the first of his two works on D. H. Lawrence, 'Son and Lover' published by Bodley Head in 1975, and including accounts of painters, Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Cezanne, as well as Walt Whitman, Robert Louis Stevenson and Chekhov. Callow, a keen amateur painter, said of himself, 'I always seem to need to have a painter in a novel' (source: Belbin, D.). In addition to his autobiographical fiction, he wrote two autobiographies, 'In my Own Land' 1965 and 'Passage from Home: a memoir' (Nottingham: Shoestring Press, 2002).
Sources: the records; David Belbin. Independent online 27 September 2007. Available: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/philip-callow-403638.html (accessed 18 January 2012); The Telegraph online Available: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1564065/Philip-Callow.html (accessed 18 January 2012); Christopher Hawtree. The Guardian obituaries online 6 October 2007 Available http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2007/oct/06/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries (accessed 17 January 2012); 'Philip Callow: An Inventory of His Papers at the Harry Ransom Center Repository' Online Available: http://research.hrc.
utexas.edu/includes/EAD2PDF.cfm?ead=00548.xml (accessed 17 January 2012). |
| Acquisition | Presented by Anne Golby, January 2011 |
| Related Material | Cadbury Research Library: Special Collections also holds drafts of the novel, 'The Story of My Desire', by Philip Callow (GB0150 MS688) and there is a copy of Callow's biography of D. H. Lawrence, 'Son and lover : the young Lawrence' London : Bodley Head, 1975 in the Cadbury Research Library book collection (Shelfmark: Boulton D. H. Lawrence Collection PR 6023.A9). |
| Associated Materials | Philip Callow Papers, 1949-2006, held by The Harry Ransom Centre, University of Texas at Austin, USA. |