Collection Summary
Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin
Ellis, Royston, 1941-
Royston Ellis
Papers
1952-1967
Manuscript Collection MS-01307
6 boxes, 1 oversize box (2.52 linear feet), 1 galley folder
Writer, biographer,
and beat poet, Royston Ellis published his first book
Jiving to Gyp at eighteen. Ellis's blend
of poetry and rock music, which he called "rocketry," lead to his meeting other
young British talents including John Lennon. In fact, it was Ellis who
suggested Lennon spell Beatles with an a and
the band eventually wrote and recorded the hit song
Paperback Writer about Ellis. The Royston Ellis Papers document his life in
manuscripts, handwritten research notes, correspondence, galley and page
proofs, photographs, newsletters, charts, and newspaper clippings.
English.
Biographical Sketch
Christopher Royston George Ellis,
writer, biographer and beat poet, was born February 10, 1941, in Pinner,
England. He attended state school there until the age of sixteen, when he left
school to become a writer. Two years later
Jiving to Gyp, his first collection of
poems, was published. Ellis performed poetry from the book on stage and
television accompanied by rock music. His mix of poetry and rock music was
called rocketry. Some of the most famous
bands performing with Ellis include Cliff Richard's group The Shadows, as well
as Jimmy Page, and John, Paul, and Stuart, who would later become the Beatles.
In the sixties, Ellis was in Liverpool where he met John Lennon, who wanted to
become a pop star and had already thought of a name for his group. It was Ellis
who suggested he spell Beatles with an a, and
the group went on to record the hit song
Paperback Writer, which Lennon and
McCartney wrote about Ellis.
Ellis left England at the age of twenty. His
travels took him to Berlin in the 1960s where he saw the Berlin Wall being
built, and later to Moscow, where he was invited by the poet Yevtushenko to
perform his own poetry.
In 1963 his travels took him to the Canary
Islands where he acted in the movie
Wonderful Life with Cliff Richard. While
there, he worked for the only English language newspaper on the islands and
also as a beachboy renting canoes. In 1964, while living in Las Palamas, Canary
Islands, he wrote his unpublished novel based on life in the islands
The Cherry Boy, not to be confused
with his published collection of poems under the same name. In September of
1965, after brief travels back to England and to Africa, Greece, and Turkey,
Ellis returned to the Canary Islands to write a novel. Commissioned after an
article in
The People exposing the Canary
Islands sex market,
The Flesh Merchants, his new novel,
incorporated many chapters he had previously written for his unpublished novel
The Cherry Boy.The Flesh Merchants
caused enough sensation for Ellis that he claims he was forced to leave Las
Palamas in November of 1966 because of police reaction to the novel.
From 1966-1980 Ellis lived in Dominica, where he wrote a series of
historical novels under the pen name Richard Tresillian. He has also written
under the pseudonym Raynard Devine. In 1980 he settled in Sri Lanka writing
guidebooks, biographies, novels, and travel features. Ellis now lives there
permanently in a cottage overlooking the Indian Ocean.
Source:
Meet Royston Ellis,
http://www.roystonellis.com/index.htm (accessed June 28, 2005).
Index Terms
Subjects
Dean, James, 1931-1955.
Presley, Elvis, 1935-1977.
Richard, Cliff.
Beat generation--Poetry.
Rock music--Biography.
Rock music--History and
criticism.
Document Types
Galley proofs.
Page proofs.
Photographs.
Scope and Contents
The Royston Ellis Papers include
manuscripts, handwritten research notes, correspondence, galley and page
proofs, photographs, newsletters, charts, and newspaper clippings. The papers
are arranged into a single series, I. Works. Research and working materials for
nine works by Ellis are arranged alphabetically by title in the series and
document Ellis's creative process.
Titles present in the collection
include
The Big Beat Scene (biography, 1961),
The Cherry Boy (unpublished novel, ca. 1964),
Driftin' with Cliff Richard (biography,
1959),
The Flesh Merchants (novel, 1966),
Jiving to Gyp (poetry, 1959),
Myself for Fame (novel, 1964),
Rave (poetry, 1960),
The Rebel (biography, 1962), and
The Shadows (biography, 1961). Many
chapters from the unpublished
The Cherry Boy were later used in
The Flesh Merchants.
The
working notes included for most of the works
are comprised of drafts, handwritten notes, correspondence, transcripts of
interviews, newspaper clippings, magazines, newsletters, and press releases.
Early drafts of some titles are interfiled with working notes when Ellis
originally kept drafts with his notes, but in general, drafts and manuscripts
are arranged separately from working notes. Illuminating the pop and rock and
roll trends of the sixties and seventies, the working notes for Ellis's
biographies shed light on the lives of icons such as Elvis Presley, James Dean,
and Cliff Richard. The working notes remain ordered as Ellis created them,
providing evidence of Ellis's research and editing methods for his manuscripts;
however, his handwriting is often hard to decipher, and much of the material is
not dated. Oversize items and galley proofs have been physically separated from
their respective works due to differing housing needs.
Acquisition:
Purchases, 1963-1973 (R1734, R1973, R2039,
R2432, R3756, R5374)
Access:
Open for research
Processed by:
Elizabeth Bittner, Tish Brewer, and
Elizabeth Brooks, 2004; Catherine Stollar, 2005
Additional materials for
Rave are contained in the Ransom Center's
Scorpion Press Collection.
Royston Ellis Papers--Folder List
Series I. Works,
1952-1967, undated
The Big Beat Scene,
1952-1961, undated
Working notes, Chapters
1
1
1-5
1
2
6-7
1
3
8
1
4
9
1
5
Typed signed manuscript
1
6
Excluded material
2
1
The Cherry Boy, typed manuscript with
emmendations,
1967, undated
Driftin' with Cliff Richard,
1958-1959, undated
2
2-4*
Working notes (*oversize materials removed to Box
7)
2
*
Galley proofs (*removed to galley files)
The Flesh Merchants,
1965-1966, undated
2
5
Working notes
3
1
Composite manuscript
3
2
Typed manuscript with corrections
Jiving to Gyp,
1959, undated
3
3-4
Composite manuscript
3
5
Typed manuscript with corrections
Proofs
3
*
Galleys (*removed to galley files)
3
6
Corrected page proofs
Myself for Fame,
1962-1963, undated
4
1-3
Working notes
4
4
Original manuscript
4
5-6
Manuscripts with corrections
4
7
Insertions for manuscript with corrections
4
8
Final version manuscript
Rave,
1960, undated
5
1
Handwritten manuscript drafts and working
notes
5
2
Handwritten notes in notebook
5
3
Typed signed manuscript
5
4
Page proofs
The Rebel,
1956-1962, undated
5
5-6
Note strips
5
7
Working notes
6
1
Typed manuscript with corrections
The Shadows,
1961, undated
6
2-3
Working notes
6
4
Typed manuscript with corrections and
inserts
6
5
Typed manuscript with corrections
7
Oversize materials