Correspondence with and relating to South African-born poet, editor and critic David Wright, including two notes from his agent Michael Sissons of A.D. Peters and Co. The correspondence includes brief references to orders for, sales of and reviews of Wright's 1976 Carcanet volume, To the gods the shades: new and collected poems (see /1, /3-5, /23, /33-34 and /49-50). There is also material relating to his 1980 Carcanet collection, Metrical observations, which Wright describes as a sort of verse autobiography (/18), including references to: publicity; the submission of the typescript in September 1979; the contract; proofs; dedication; complimentary copies; reviews, including Wendy Cope's positive response to the book; and readings from the book made during a visit by Wright to South Africa (see /8, /15-18, /22-30, /35-40, /42-43, /45-46, /49-50 and /55).
Other topics include: Wright's reviewing work for PN Review, including references to planned reviews of Patrick Kavanagh, John Clare and Drummond Allison; Wright's brief thoughts on poems by Edwin Morgan (/1); his essay on [Guy] Butler, published in PN Review 9 (/2-3); his thoughts on the content of issues 9 (/3 and /5), 10 (/19) and 12 (/35) of the magazine; C.H. Sisson, including his fame in the USA (/9), his Dante translations (/21 and /45-46), and Jon Silkin's attacks on him in 1979 (/24); an article by Wright on Roy Campbell, published in the Sunday Telegraph in May 1979 (/6-9, /12, /14, and /13, which is a photocopy of the article); Cliff Ashby's poetry (/9-10 and /12); poems by Julian Orde Abercrombie which Wright is organising into a book (/15-17, /19 and /21); Wright's thoughts on Schmidt's British poets 1300-1900 (/22-25); a meeting with David Gascoyne and his wife in October 1979 (/23 and /26-28); the David Wright supplement included in PN Review 14 (/1, /24, /35, /38, /40, /47-48 and /51); the death of Elizabeth Bishop in October 1979 (/24); a Radio 3 programme about Wright, introduced by Sisson, in October 1979 (/23-24 and /26); his attendance at a party held by Tambi[muttu] in late 1979 (/28); Schmidt's Five American poets [1979] (/31 and /33-34); a highly successful reading by Wright in Durham in March 1980 (/49-50); a visit to South Africa by Wright in spring 1980 (/54-57); Schmidt's fears of a literary vendetta against Sisson and Davie in 1980, and his thoughts on Edna Longley's review of Sisson's [Exactions] and on the literary establishment in London (/54 and /56-57); and some autobiographical pieces Wright is working on in 1980 (/56-57).
Dated at: Appleby in Westmorland, Cumbria.
Typescript with holograph annotations and autographs.