Philip Pullman Collection

  • This material is held at
  • Reference
      GB 1840 PP
  • Dates of Creation
      c 1976-1997
  • Name of Creator
  • Language of Material
      English
  • Physical Description
      14 archive boxes + 1 OS folder

Scope and Content

Collection of drafts, draft material and notes relating to fourteen of Philip Pullman's published titles for children. The collection includes notes and drafts for all four books in the Sally Lockhart Quartet - 'The Ruby in the Smoke', 'The Shadow in the North', 'The Tiger in the Well' and 'The Tin Princess'; and typescript drafts for the first two books in the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy - 'Northern Lights' & 'The Subtle Knife'. The collection also includes material relating to several school plays which Pullman wrote when working as an English teacher in Oxford. Four of these plays went on to be developed into full-length novels, published under the titles 'Count Karlstein', 'The Ruby in the Smoke', 'Spring-Heeled Jack' and 'The Firework Maker's Daughter'; two remained unpublished, and appear in the collection within the series 'Unpublished plays'. The collection also includes a very small amount of correspondence.

The collection is arranged by title and publication date, with a final series for unpublished material.

Administrative / Biographical History

Created by Philip Pullman during the course of his career as a children's writer.

Access Information

Accessible to all researchers, by appointment only.

Custodial History

Donated to Seven Stories by the creator in 2002.

Personal Names