Early prose notes, army orders, verse and letters from Sassoon, Graves, Scott Moncrieff, Tailhade and Drinkwater, 1905-1988
Comprises:
- OEF 410 School exercise book, 1908-9. 21 leaves. Contains short essays on ‘Milton’, ‘International Exhibitions’, ‘Description of a Railway Station at a Busy Time of Day’, ‘The River Severn’, ‘Earthquakes’, ‘Cats’, ‘The Autobiography of a Dog’, ‘Market Day in a Country Town’.
- OEF 411-12 ‘Description of a journey from Constantinople to Mew’, [1910]. Short descriptive school essay.
- OEF 413-14 School notes with geographical diagrams. n.d. Headings: ‘Ria’; ‘Fjord’.
- OEF 415 ‘Italy is destined by Nature to be an agricultural country’, n.d. Short essay. Verso contains three maths questions.
- OEF 416-17 Notes on Keats, n.d. Verso of 416 contains a paragraph entitled ‘The Renascence’ [sic.]
- OEF 418-21 Notes on Dickens, n.d. 418b is a note from Harold Owen: ‘KEEP (DICKENS)’.
- OEF 422a prose fragment in French, music on verso dated ‘December 1910’. 422b translation of fragment, unidentified hand, n.d. 422c note from Harold Owen: ‘KEEP’.
- OEF 423a,b photocopy of postcard from Wilfred Owen to J. de la Touche, 1915, annotated by John Bell. Not in Collected Letters
- OEF 424a postcard from Wilfred Owen to Alec Paton, 1906 (Collected Letters p.30)
- OEF 424b, c letter from Paton to D. Hibberd, 1988.
- OEF 425 certificate from Birkenhead Institute addressed to Wilfred Owen, awarding him the Junior Duke of Westminster Scholarship, 1905.
- OEF 426 ‘Two Thousand’, [Jun-Nov 1917] (Collected Letters p.481). Notes for a play.
- OEF 427-8 notes for an essay on Outlook Tower, [Jun-Nov 1917] (Collected Letters p.476)
- OEF 429-37 ‘Do Plants Think?’, [Jun-Nov 1917] (Collected Letters p.478). Notes for a lecture delivered at Craiglockhart. 433-4 contains diagrams.
- OEF 438-44 ’Editorial’, 4 Aug 1917. Notes for Hydra no. 8.
- OEF 445 ‘Ill Winds’, [1917]. By Sitwell, transcribed with a note by Wilfred Owen.
- OEF 446 Army orders, 4 Jun 1916. TS. Note on verso from Harold Owen: ‘DISCHARGE FROM ARTISTS’ RIFLES’.
- OEF 447a Army orders, 11 Dec 1916. TS. Contains orders to proceed overseas.
- OEF 447b Army orders, 24 Dec 1916. TS. Contains orders to proceed to Folkestone.
- OEF 448 Army orders, 30 Jan 1917. MS. Contains orders to proceed to Abbeville. Verso contains Tagore quotation.
- OEF 449a Army orders, 26 Aug 1918. TS. Contains orders to join the British Armies in France.
- OEF 449b Army orders, 26 Aug 1918. TS. Medical approval.
- OEF 450 Army orders, 7 Oct 1918. TS facsimile. Orders against ‘peace talk’ among soldiers.
- OEF 451 ‘Awarded the Military Cross’, n.d. Not official text, possibly a family forgery. Note in pencil from Harold Owen: ‘CITATION’.
- OEF 452 Sassoon MS, note to Wilfred Owen (Collected Letters p.504)
- OEF 453 Sassoon MS, letter to Wilfred Owen, 8 Aug 1918
- OEF 454 Sassoon MS, ‘Vision’
- OEF 455 Sassoon MS, ‘The Rear Guard’
- OEF 456a Sassoon MS, envelope entitled ‘The Rear Guard MSS, Dreamers, etc. Siegfried Sassoon.’
- OEF 456b Sassoon MS, ‘Dreamers’,.
- OEF 457 Graves MS, letter to Wilfred Owen from Robert Graves, Oct 1917 (Collected Letters p.595)
- OEF 458 Graves MS, letter to Wilfred Owen from Robert Graves, Dec 1917 (Collected Letters p.595)
- OEF 459 Graves MS, letter to Wilfred Owen from Robert Graves, Feb 1918, dated ‘Feb 1st’
- OEF 460 Moncrieff MS, ‘Remembering rather all my waste of days’, sonnet by Scott Moncrieff, dated by Wilfred Owen ‘May 19 1918’
- OEF 461 Moncrieff MS, letter to Wilfred Owen from Scott Moncrieff, 26 May 1918 (Collected Letters p.553)
- OEF 462 Moncrieff MS, dedication ‘To Mr W.O.’ of ‘The Song of Roland’, 1918
- OEF 463-8 Moncrieff MS, ‘The Song of Roland’, 1918. 179 lines.
- OEF 469-70 Tailhade MS, letter to Wilfred Owen, Apr 1 1915. Written in French. See also 526.
- OEF 471 Drinkwater MS, letter to Wilfred Owen, n.d. 471a Wilfred Owen’s envelope. 471b ‘Reciprocity’ by John Drinkwater.
- OEF 472 postcard from Wilfred Owen to Leslie Gunston, 21 Sep 1913 (Collected Letters p.197)
- OEF 473 postcard from Wilfred Owen to Leslie Gunston, 9 Nov 1913 (Collected Letters p.208)
- OEF 474 postcard from Wilfred Owen to Leslie Gunston, 13 Apr 1914 (Collected Letters p.242)
- OEF 475 postcard from Wilfred Owen to Leslie Gunston, 12 Jun 1914 (Collected Letters p.259)
- OEF 476 postcard from Wilfred Owen to Leslie Gunston, 21 Jun 1914 (Collected Letters p.262)
- OEF 477 postcard from Wilfred Owen to Leslie Gunston, 6 Aug 1914 (Collected Letters p.274)
- OEF 478 postcard from Wilfred Owen to Leslie Gunston, 15 Feb 1915 (Collected Letters p.321)
- OEF 479 postcard from Wilfred Owen to Leslie Gunston, 23 Feb 1915 (Collected Letters p.323)
- OEF 480 postcard from Wilfred Owen to Leslie Gunston, 25 Mar 1915 (Collected Letters p.328)
- OEF 481 postcard from Wilfred Owen to Leslie Gunston, 25 Apr 1915 (Collected Letters p.335)
- OEF 482 postcard from Wilfred Owen to Leslie Gunston, 16 Aug 1915 (Collected Letters p.355)
- OEF 483 postcard from Wilfred Owen to Leslie Gunston, 23 Nov 1915 (Collected Letters p.367)
- OEF 484 postcard from Wilfred Owen to Leslie Gunston, 12 Feb 1918 (Collected Letters p.531)
- OEF 485 photograph, casino audience, Bagnères, Aug 1914 (Collected Letters pl. VI)
- OEF 486 photograph, Wilfred Owen and Tailhade, Sep 1914 (Collected Letters pl. Vb)
- OEF 487a photograph, Wilfred Owen as baby, [1893-1894]
- OEF 487b photograph, portrait of Wilfred Owen by John Gunston, Jul 1916. Found in Wilfred Owen’s Theocritus.
- OEF 487c photograph, Susan Owen (in glasses) and Emma Gunston, 1920. Taken in Whitsuntide.
- OEF 487d photograph, Mary Owen, Emma Gunston, Susan Owen and another, n.d. Taken at Alpenrose.
- OEF 488 envelope, from Wilfred Owen to Gunstons, 1907. For items 490-1.
- OEF 489 proof of Wilfred Owen’s portrait by John Gunston. Made for Tamesis 1933-1934. See Gunston file, 7-8.
- OEF 490-1 letter from Wilfred Owen to Vera Gunston and Leslie Gunston, 15 Nov 1907. Letters contains details about the recently founded ‘Astronomical, Geological and Botanical Society’.
- OEF 492-4 rhymed letter from Wilfred Owen to Leslie Gunston, 7 Aug 1912 (CPF 22)
- OEF 495 letter from Wilfred Owen to Leslie Gunston, 1913. Includes ‘But it is not enough’ (CPF 40).
- OEF 496 letter from Wilfred Owen to Leslie Gunston, 1915 (Collected Letters p.192). Includes ‘When late I viewed’ (CPF 45).
- OEF 497 letter from Wilfred Owen to Leslie Gunston, 1915 (Collected Letters p.343). Includes ‘Impromptu’, although not yet titled this (CPF 64).
Dates
- Creation: 1905-1988
Extent
1 box
Language of Materials
- English
Conditions Governing Access
To ensure its availability to future readers, access to this item is restricted, and readers are asked to work from reproductions and published descriptions as far as possible. To apply to see the original, please send a message to specialcollections.enquiries@bodleian.ox.ac.uk, outlining the subject of your research, the importance of this item to that research, and the resources you have already consulted. Please also tell us about the timeframe for your project, if any, and when you hope to visit.
Shelfmark
MS. 12282/5
Former reference:
OEF 410-497
Custodial History
Items 472-526 are part of the Gunston collection, donated by E. Leslie Gunston in 1978.
Existence and Location of Copies
Researchers should first consult the digital versions available on the World War I Poetry Digital Archive and Jon Stallworthy's edition of Wilfred Owen: The Complete Poems and Fragments (London, 1983; revised 2013).
Creator
- From the Collection: Owen | Wilfred Edward Salter | 1893-1918 | poet (Person)
Repository Details
Part of the Bodleian Libraries Repository
Weston Library
Broad Street
Oxford OX1 3BG United Kingdom
specialcollections.enquiries@bodleian.ox.ac.uk