An Inventory of His Papers at the Harry Ransom Center
Creator:
Urquhart, Fred, 1912-1995
Title:
Fred Urquhart Papers
Dates:
1935-1965
Extent:
5 document boxes (2.10 linear feet)
Abstract:
Scottish author Fred Urquhart
published numerous short stories and several novels, and also served as the editor
of several short story anthologies. His papers contain handwritten manuscripts
and
typescript drafts of his literary works, as well as material related to his
editorial projects. Also present is Urquhart's personal correspondence with
contemporary authors such as Rhys Davies and Norah Hoult, and correspondence
documenting his editorial work.
Call Number:
Manuscript Collection MS-4316
Language:
English.
Access:
Open for research. Part or all of this collection is housed off-site and may require
up to three business days notice for access in the Ransom Center's Reading and
Viewing Room. Please contact the Center before requesting this material:
reference@hrc.utexas.edu
Administrative Information
Acquisition:
Purchases, 1965-1970 (R2299, R4357. R4815)
Processed by:
Shelley Rowland, Tan Tiantian, and Sarah Weinblatt, 2007, updated by Hagan Barber,
2012
Frederick Burrows Urquhart was born on July 12,
1912, in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is acknowledged as both a novelist and
short story writer, but achieved recognition from his short stories. Urquhart
also
spent time editing and reviewing books. The constant theme of his stories centers
upon the lives of ordinary people, especially violence and cruelty towards women.
His education took place in village schools in Scotland until 1927, when
at fifteen he left school to work for a bookshop in Edinburgh. During this time
he
began to write his first novel. He left the bookstore to concentrate on his writing
in 1935, and by 1938 this novel, Time Will
Knit, was published. Because he was a declared pacifist, at the outbreak
of World War II he was sent to work on the land. At this time, his first collection
of short stories, I Fell for a
Sailor (1940), was published, followed by his second collection of stories,
The Clouds Are Big with Mercy
(1946), and his two later novels, The Ferret Was Abraham's
Daughter (1949) and Jezebel's
Dust (1951). Further volumes of stories include The Year of the Short Corn (1949), The Last Sister (1950), The Laundry Girl and the People
(1955), The Dying Stallion (1967),
and The Ploughing Match (1968). His
final works were the novel Palace of Green
Days (1979), which drew upon his childhood in Perthshire where his
father worked as a chauffeur, and a collection of short stories, A Diver in China Seas (1980).
In 1944 he began working at the estate of the Duke of Bedford.
This gave him the opportunity to meet the Scottish painters Robert
Colquhoun and Robert MacBryde, and two literary
notables, George Orwell and Rhys Davies.
Starting in 1947, Urquhart began work as a reader for a London literary agency,
and
from 1951-1954 he worked as a script-reader for
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He was also a reviewer for Time and Tide and other journals
between 1947 and 1974 and a literary scout for Walt Disney
Productions (1959-1960). As interest in the serious short story waned, he
took on a number of editing tasks for works such as W.S.C.: A Cartoon Biography (1955), which consisted of
political cartoons focusing on Winston Churchill, and Scottish Short Stories (1957).
In 1958 he moved to East Sussex with his companion, dancer Peter Wyndham
Allen, but when Allen died in 1990 Urquhart moved back to Scotland
and settled in Musselburgh. He died in Edinburgh on December 2, 1995.
Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography, http://www.oxforddnb.com (Accessed 13 November, 2007)
Scope and Contents
Literary works, correspondence, and printed material, 1935-1965, document the life
and work of Scottish author Fred Urquhart, including his
literary production, editorial projects, and role in contemporary literary circles.
The material is arranged in two series: I. Works, 1935-1965, and II. Correspondence,
1950-1964.
The literary works consist of typescripts and handwritten manuscripts of Urquhart's
numerous short stories and two novels Time
Will Knit and The Ferret Was
Abraham's Daughter. Also included are drafts of introductions, notes,
ledgers, and book request slips illuminating Urquhart's role as editor of two
short
story anthologies, Scottish Short
Stories and Colour Book of
Scotland, and a comic anthology about Winston
Churchill, W.S.C.: A Cartoon
Biography. Galley proofs and manuscripts for the Cartoon Biography contain the cartoon captions but not
the cartoons. Drafts of a proposed serial, "The Beckoning
Globe," and a non-fiction work, "A Bevy of Bad
Women," document Urquhart's unsuccessful literary collaboration with
Louis Golding. The bulk of the literary material dates
between the years 1935 and 1949. The earliest manuscript, "No Fields of Amaranth," is dated 17 December 1935,
and the latest, "Water Water Wildflower," 21
February 1965.
Notable in the Urquhart correspondence in Series II. are letters received from
authors Rhys Davies (69 items, 1953-1962) and Norah
Hoult (26 items, 1956-1963) that discuss contemporary writers such as
Frank Swinnerton, Ivy Compton-Burnet,
and A. J. Cronin. The majority of the correspondence documents
Urquhart's editorial communications with authors, literary agents, and publishing
companies for the aforementioned anthologies. The correspondence with
Louis Golding includes clippings of Golding's serial, "The
Ring Cycle," which appeared in the Daily
Sketch in March 1953. Individual correspondents represented
include J.R. Ackerley, Nancy Cunard,
Francis King, John Lehmann,
Sir Compton Mackenzie, Naomi
Mitchison, John Cowper Powys, Muriel
Spark, and Alan Sillitoe.
