Cataloguing the Dymock Poets Special Collection begins!
30th October 2015
The cataloguing of the archival and ephemeral material in our Dymock Poets Special Collection has begun. The collection is unique, telling the story of the commune of poets who settled in Dymock just before the outbreak of the First World War and the proceeding century of interest they have created. We have original documents by literary giants such as Edward Thomas, and those who were well-known and respected figures of their time like the Northumbrian poet Wilfrid Gibson.
The first stage of sorting the collection has begun
Published material such as volumes of poetry and critical studies are already catalogued and available to view on the University’s library catalogue. The remaining 13 linear meters of documents, correspondence, photographs and ephemera will be catalogued onto the Special Collections and Archives catalogue, meaning the whole collection will be accessible online for the first time.
We are very lucky to have benefited from 20 years of links with the Edward Thomas Fellowship and Friends of the Dymock Poets, and through them have received material for the collection from various sources, not least the descendants of the poets themselves. Our students have also worked with the material in the past, most recently our MA Creative and Critical Writing students who used the collection to create new pieces of dramatic writing inspired by the poets, which premiered at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham in June 2015.
Some of the original documents from the collection
The catalogue is scheduled to be completed by May next year, and progress updates will be available on this site.