Colin MacInnes papers
Creator: MacInnes, Colin
Call Number: D.140
Dates: 1921-1976
Physical Description: 23 boxes
Language(s): Materials are in English
Repository: Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester

Table of Contents:

Biographical/Historical Note
Scope and Content
Subject(s)
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Access
Use
Citation
Content List
Series I: Personal papers
Subseries I: Juvenalia
Subseries II: Correspondence
Subseries III: McGibbon and Kee correspondence
Subseries IV: Martin Brian and O'Keefe: correspondence and contracts
Subseries V: Reg Davis-Poynter correspondence
Subseries VI: Correspondence and materials from James Campbell McInnes (Colin MacInnes's father)
Subseries VII: Travel
Subseries VIII: Legal, financial, and medical documents
Subseries IX: Working files (miscellaneous background materials and notes for work in progress)
Series II: Published works
Subseries I: City of Spades
Subseries II: Absolute Beginners
Subseries III: Mr Love and Justice
Subseries IV: England, Half English
Subseries V: All Day Saturday
Subseries VI: Sweet Saturday Night
Subseries VII: Westward to Laughter
Subseries VIII: Three Years to Play
Subseries IX: Loving Them Both: A Study of Bisexuality
Subseries X: Out of the Garden
Subseries XI: No Novel Reader
Subseries XII: Manuscripts and typescripts of essays as published
Subseries XIII: Essays for periodicals (tearsheets only)
Subseries XIV: Neighborhoods
Subseries XV: BBC scripts and miscellaneous
Series III: Unpublished works
Subseries I: Gallery Boy
Subseries II: Cousin Mixed
Subseries III: Angus Bard
Subseries IV: All Day Saturday (dramatisation)
Subseries V: Four Maids of Albion
Subseries VI: Children of Eve
Subseries VII: The Cockneys
Subseries VIII: Juan Benvenuto (El Morito)
Subseries IX: Miscellaneous essays and novels
Subseries X: The Heart of the Legend
Series IV: Printed material about MacInnes
Collection Overview
Title: Colin MacInnes papers
Creator: MacInnes, Colin
Call Number: D.140
Dates: 1921-1976
Physical Description: 23 boxes
Language(s): Materials are in English
Repository: Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester

Biographical/Historical Note
Colin MacInnes was born August 20, 1914 in London. He was the second child and younger son (a daughter died in infancy) of James Campbell McInnes (1874-1945), a professional singer who in 1919 migrated to Canada where he continued his concert career and also taught singing. Colin's mother Angela Mackail (1890-1961) was the daughter of J. W. Mackail and the granddaughter of the artist Edward Burne-Jones. She was also related to Stanley Baldwin and Rudyard Kipling. Angela Mackail McInnes left her husband in 1917 and, after obtaining a divorce, married an Australian, George Allnut Thirkell. In 1920 the family moved to Australia, where Colin's half-brother Lance Thirkell was born. In 1929 Angela Thirkell returned to England with her youngest son. There she began to write novels, the best known of which are the series on English country life, the Barsetshire novels. Colin and his brother Graham both went by the name of Thirkell until the early 1930s, when they resumed using their father's surname, McInnes. Shortly thereafter Colin changed the spelling of his name to MacInnes.

Colin MacInnes was educated in Australia, where he lived until 1930. From 1930 to 1935, he pursued a business career in Brussels. Upon leaving Brussels, he went to London to study painting, first at the Chelsea Polytechnic and later at the School of Drawing and Painting, Euston Road. After the outbreak of the war, he served with the British Army as a sergeant in the Intelligence Corps and was sent to Germany during the occupation. His experiences there formed the basis of his first published novel, To The Victors The Spoils. After leaving the army, he joined the BBC Radio, where he evidently wrote scripts. He left the BBC sometime in the mid-Fifties and supported himself for the rest of his life by writing essays, plays, and novels. He was published in many English periodicals and was a regular contributor to New Society in 1962 and 1963. His fiction and non-fiction drew upon his experiences in Australia, in the army of occupation in Germany, London low-life, black immigrants, English working-class teenagers, and music halls. Three novels that dealt with modern life in London, City of Spades, 1957, Absolute Beginners, 1959, and Mr. Love and Justice, 1960, were followed by historical novels, Westward to Laughter, 1969, and Three Years to Play, 1970. At the time of his death, he was writing a novel, Angus Bard, based on his father's early life. He died April 22, 1976.

Scope and Content
The collection consists of correspondence, notebooks, manuscript drafts and typescripts, galley and page proofs of novels and plays, manuscript drafts and tear sheets of essays, writing notebooks, background files, financial records, and documents. Bound proofs have been catalogued and placed with the books. The collection is principally in the order established by MacInnes. The correspondence with his publisher is divided according to the publication to which it pertains, and most of the rest of the correspondence is filed with the manuscript drafts to which it was attached. The presence of correspondence is indicated in the register by an asterisk. The exceptions are letters to and from Elspeth Huxley, and letters from Robert Graves, Sidney Nolan, John Osborne, and Sir John Gielgud, which are indexed and filed at the beginning of the correspondence. Events in MacInnes' life that are documented in the collection are his early years in Brussels, his bankruptcy about 1960, his abortive trip to Africa in 1971 under the auspices of the British Council, and his hospital treatment during his final illness.

Tony Gould's book Inside Outsider: The Life and Times of Colin MacInnes is based in part on this collection. (London: Chatto & Hindus - The Hogarth Press, 1983).

Subject(s):
English literature
Bisexual men
Correspondence
Novels
Poetry
Essays
Film adaptations
Radio scripts
MacInnes, Colin
Authors, English
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from Bertram Rota on the Wilson Family Fund in 1968 and subsequent purchases with funds provided by the Friends of the University of Rochester Libraries. The James Campbell McInnes material was the gift of Margaret Little in 1988.Access
The Colin MacInnes papers is open for research use. Researchers are advised to contact Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation prior to visiting. Upon arrival, researchers will also be asked to fill out a registration form and provide photo identification.Use
Reproductions are made upon request but can be subject to restrictions. Permission to publish materials from the collection must currently be requested. Please note that some materials may be copyrighted or restricted. It is the researcher's obligation to determine and satisfy copyright or other case restrictions when publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the collections. For more information contact rarebks@library.rochester.eduCitation
[Item title, item date], Colin MacInnes papers, D.140, Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester
Administrative Information
Author: Finding aid prepared by Rare Books and Special Collections staff
Publisher: Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester
Address:
Rush Rhees Library
Second Floor, Room 225
Rochester, NY 14627-0055
rarebks@library.rochester.edu
URL:


Content List