Wyndham Lewis Collection
Scope and Content Note
Comprising mostly the collection previously owned by Lord Carlow, the Wyndham Lewis Collection is the second largest in existence and contains a large number of manuscripts, typescripts, and corrected page proofs for many of Lewis's books, several of which are bound in leather. These document the author's process of continually revising his writings all the way up to their final publication and beyond. The Lewis archive also contains approximately 80 letters, mostly to A. J. A. Symons and Iris Barry; manuscripts of unpublished articles; fragments of verse; and complete runs of the little magazines Blast, The Enemy and The Egoistt (the little magazine collection also has both issues of The Tyro). Additionally, The Poetry Collection owns several of Lewis's drawings and his 1939 portrait painting of Samuel P. Capen, former Chancellor of The State University of New York at Buffalo.
Dates
- 1917-1942
Language of Materials
Collection material in English.
Terms of Access and Use
Wyndham Lewis Collection, 1917-1942, is open for research.
Copyright
Copyright of papers in the collection may be held by their authors, or the authors' heirs or assigns. Researchers must obtain the written permission of the holder(s) of copyright and the Poetry Collection before publishing quotations from materials in the collection. Most papers may be copied in accordance with the library's usual procedures unless otherwise specified.
Biographical Note
Wyndham Lewis (1882-1957) was an influential British painter, author, and editor. He co-founded the art movement Vorticism, a combination of Cubism and Futurism, and edited the little magazines Blast (1914-1915), which published his Vorticist manifesto along with the work of Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot, The Tyro (1921-1922), and The Enemy (1927-1929). Strongly critical of communism and controversial for his conservatism, Lewis wrote numerous essays, satires, and political novels including Tarr (1918), The Apes of God (1930), The Revenge for Love (1937), and the trilogy The Human Age (1928-1955), as well as One-Way Song (1933), a book of poems.
Extent
5.5 Linear Feet (22 boxes)
Abstract
Comprising mostly the collection previously owned by Lord Carlow, the Wyndham Lewis Collection is the second largest in existence and contains a large number of manuscripts, typescripts, and corrected page proofs for many of Lewis's books, several of which are bound in leather. These document the author's process of continually revising his writings all the way up to their final publication and beyond. The Lewis archive also contains approximately 80 letters, mostly to A. J. A. Symons and Iris Barry; manuscripts of unpublished articles; fragments of verse; and complete runs of the little magazines Blast, The Enemy and The Egoist. Additionally, The Poetry Collection owns several of Lewis's drawings and his 1939 portrait painting of Samuel P. Capen, former Chancellor of The State University of New York at Buffalo.
Arrangement
This collection is arranged in four series:
- I. Manuscripts
- II. Letters
- III. Drawings
- IV. Peripherals
Acquisition Information
Purchased by Charles D. Abbott from A. Zwemmer, Ltd. of London in 1953.
Accruals and Additions
No further accruals are expected to this collection.
Processing Information
Processed by Poetry Collection staff.
Source
- The Poetry Collection (Repository, Organization)
- Title
- Finding Aid for the Wyndham Lewis Collection PCMS.0008
- Author
- Finding aid prepared by Karen Morse.
- Date
- 2008
- Description rules
- Finding Aid Prepared Using Local Best Practices
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Repository Details
Part of the The Poetry Collection Repository
420 Capen Hall
Buffalo New York 14260-1674 US
716-645-2917
716-645-3714 (Fax)
lpo-poetry@buffalo.edu