Paul Claudel and Audrey Parr: a Cambridge exhibition

To mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of the poet and playwright Paul Claudel (1868–1955), a new exhibition in the Cambridge University Library’s main Entrance Hall displays highlights from a collection of letters, postcards, verses and books sent or presented by Claudel to his friend and collaborator Audrey Parr (1892–1940), and donated to the … Continue reading Paul Claudel and Audrey Parr: a Cambridge exhibition

CUL MS Add.9852/6/2, endpapers

On display: ‘Poems by Siegfried Sassoon’

The friendship formed by the poet Siegfried Sassoon with the literary hostess Lady Ottoline Morrell was among the most formative of his life. Begun by correspondence early in 1916 while he was serving on the Western Front, the relationship introduced Sassoon to the circle of pacifist intellectuals centred on the Morrells’ home at Garsington in Oxfordshire. … Continue reading On display: ‘Poems by Siegfried Sassoon’

‘The first of rural bards’: Robert Bloomfield in Cambridge University Library

The poet Robert Bloomfield, author of The farmer’s boy, was born in Suffolk two hundred and fifty years ago, in December 1766. Of humble parentage, he worked briefly as a labourer on a nearby farm before moving to London to take up the trade of cobbler. The success of The farmer’s boy, a poem of … Continue reading ‘The first of rural bards’: Robert Bloomfield in Cambridge University Library

Virtual exhibitions from Cambridge University Library

Cambridge University Library has recently been using a generous grant from the Howard and Abby Milstein Foundation to augment its provision of online exhibitions. The re-designed Exhibitions homepage has links to the resources in the new format, which have been created using a customised platform based on WordPress. Two recent virtual exhibitions in particular may be of interest … Continue reading Virtual exhibitions from Cambridge University Library

‘All things go free that have survived’: Seamus Heaney 1939-2013

Seamus Heaney, the most celebrated member of a remarkable generation of Irish poets, died on the 30th of August at the age of 74. His full-length books of verse were published in Britain by Faber and Faber, but he also co-operated with artists and printers in a number of smaller-scale private and fine-press productions of … Continue reading ‘All things go free that have survived’: Seamus Heaney 1939-2013

Willy Russell Archive deposited at Liverpool John Moores University.

Guest post by Jessica Smith, Project Archivist  Willy Russell is a playwright and musician whose work has enjoyed worldwide success and acclaim. He is best known for plays Educating Rita (1980), Shirley Valentine (1986), Our Day Out (1977), and the musical Blood Brothers (1983). Willy Russell’s works have been translated into numerous languages and won … Continue reading Willy Russell Archive deposited at Liverpool John Moores University.

Peter Scupham at Eighty

  A new exhibition in Cambridge University Library celebrates the eightieth birthday of the distinguished poet Peter Scupham. Born in Bootle in 1933, Scupham read English at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. While working as a schoolteacher, and later in semi-retirement as a bookseller, Scupham has produced eleven full-length collections of poetry in addition to volumes of Selected … Continue reading Peter Scupham at Eighty

Showing Their Hands at Cambridge University Library

Dawson Turner, the banker, antiquary, and leading light of autograph collectors in the early nineteenth century, claimed that he had ‘never met with the man who was not gratified to see how Newton wrote, or how Milton and Bacon formed their letters’. Since poetry is the most intense and heightened mode of language, fascination with … Continue reading Showing Their Hands at Cambridge University Library

Last chance to see Mervyn Peake exhibition at the British Library

Extended until the 2nd October, there is still time to visit The Worlds of Mervyn Peake, a free exhibition in the British Library Folio Gallery. The exhibition showcases the Peake Archive which was acquired by the Library last year with generous support from the Art Fund, the Friends of the British Library, the Friends of … Continue reading Last chance to see Mervyn Peake exhibition at the British Library