James Lees-Milne papers 1907-1997

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James Lees-Milne papers 1907-1997

http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/beinecke.leesmil

The James Lees-Milne Papers contain correspondence, writings, and other papers of the author. The papers span the years 1907-1997, with the bulk falling between 1930-1997. Series I, Correspondence, is the most extensive, and documents Lees-Milne's relationships with a wide circle of close friends, social and literary acquaintances, publishers, the National Trust, his family and his wife's family. The majority of correspondents are members of the British aristocracy and of Britain's literary elite. Among his most frequent correspondents were John Betjeman, John Spencer Churchill, Patrick Kinross, Edward Sackville-West, Sacheverell Sitwell, James Pope-Hennessy, Harold Nicolson, Rosamond Lehmann, Anne Hill (Lady Anne Gathorne-Hardy), Diana (Mitford) Mosley, Eardley Knollys, John Kenworthy-Browne, Richard Stewart-Jones and Stuart Preston. Other correspondents include Ivy Compton-Burnett, Elspeth Huxley, Lady Kathleen Kennett (widow of Admiral Scott), Alan Pryce-Jones, his literary executor Michael Bloch, and many other literary friends, nobility, and prominent figures in the arts. Series II, Writings, contains manuscripts, contracts, background research material, and reviews of Lees-Milne's published diaries, writings on architectural history, biographies, novels, memoirs, and shorter works such as magazine articles and obituaries. Manuscripts for the earlier diaries are not present; for 1946-47 and 1953-78, there are corrected typescripts that contain material not included in the published versions. The most extensive background material is for Lees-Milne's two-volume biography of Harold Nicolson: this includes a small body of Nicolson's correspondence to his secretary, business associates, several friends, including Leonard and Virginia Woolf, and his wife Vita Sackville-West. Background material for Lees-Milne's The Age of Inigo Jones includes one of the pocket notebooks he carried with him on visits to National Trust properties in the 1940s. Series III, Other Papers, contains certificates, invitations, a list of books read 1962-96, ephemera, which includes a bookplate showing the Lees-Milne coat of arms, and clippings. The majority of the clippings are obituaries of Lees-Milne's friends and family, but also present are interviews with and profiles of Lees-Milne himself, articles about the National Trust, about architecture and historic preservation, and about friends. Series IV, Photographs, contains snapshots of Lees-Milne and his family and friends from his childhood through the 1980s.

Total Boxes: 30; Linear Feet: 14.01; Other Storage Formats: cold storage

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 6349438

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Related Entities

There are 39 Entities related to this resource.

Betjeman, John, 1906-1984

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6q52ngz (person)

John Betjeman was a poet, journalist, free-lance writer, architectural commentator, broadcaster, and television personality who was popular in England in the 1960s and 1970s and was active in the campaigning for the preservation of churches, buildings and landscape. He was knighted in 1969 and became poet laureate in 1972. During his time at Oxford University, Betjeman's active social life included writers such as Evelyn Waugh, Bryan Guiness, Graham Greene, and W.H. Auden. He married Penelope Ch...

Lees-Milne, Alvilde

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6r509dg (person)

Mitford family.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6h228vf (family)

Lees-Milne, Helen.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xm28gr (person)

Lees-Milne, James

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6ks7bs4 (person)

James Lees-Milne (1908-1997), diarist, biographer, novelist, and architectural historian, was born on August 6, 1908, in Worcestershire, England,and was educated at Eton and Oxford. After a brief career as secretary to Lord Lloyd and at Reuters, he worked for the National Trust's Historic Buildings program from 1936 to 1966, and served as consultant to the National Trust until his death in December 1997. He was a founding member of several English preservation societies, and a fellow of the Roya...

Lees-Milne family.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sc3fdn (family)

Mosley, Diana, 1910-2003

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6dz3smx (person)

Bloch, Michael

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66d6d6r (person)

Mitford family.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61w4ppv (family)

Preston, Stuart.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xs9npc (person)

Lees-Milne family.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6911bmj (family)

Pope-Hennessy, James

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61k03vf (person)

Stewart-Jones, Richard Llewellyn, 1914-1957

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61c5q1z (person)

Compton-Burnett, I. (Ivy), 1884-1969

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6wq0fb0 (person)

Ivy Compton-Burnett was born at Pinner, Middlesex, England, June 5, 1884; educated at Addiscombe College, Howard College, and the Royal Holloway College; wrote first novel, Dolores (1911), while a governess for her younger sisters; wrote over twenty novels in her lifetime, receiving the James Tait Black memorial prize for Mother and son (1955); died, London, England, Aug. 27, 1969. From the description of Literary manuscripts, 1948-1963. (University of California, Los Angeles). World...

Churchill, John George Spencer, 1909-.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6c000gh (person)

Mitford family.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6nh9n79 (family)

Lees-Milne, James.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6pw9921 (person)

The British writer James Lees-Milne (1908-1997) is perhaps best known through his published diaries of the 1940s, which chronicle his adventures as a National Trust representative in the infancy of its Historic Buildings program, his movements in London society of that period, and his daily life during World War II and its long aftermath in England. Further published diaries take the reader into the 1970s. He has told his own story, too, in the best-selling memoir about his childhoo...

Sackville-West, Edward, Hon., 1901-1965

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6ns1fbw (person)

English novelist. Sackville-West wrote light, witty novels. He also published a book of critical essays. From the description of Edward Sackville-West letters, 1928-1962. (Boston College). WorldCat record id: 33218455 ...

Esher, Reginald Balliol Brett, Viscount, 1852-1930.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6d60783 (person)

Mosley, Diana, Lady, 1910-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tp01z4 (person)

Lees-Milne family.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w62d3vkp (family)

Kinross, Patrick Balfour, baron, 1904-1976

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6417gg4 (person)

John Patrick Douglas Balfour, Baron Kinross, was born June 25, 1904 in Edinburgh, Scotland; he inherited the title of 3rd Baron Kinross of Glasclune in 1939 upon the death of his father. He was educated at Winchester and Balliol Coll. Oxford (B.A. History 1925) and while at Oxford he became one of the "Bright Young People" along with Harold Acton, Evelyn Waugh, Cyril Connolly, Brian Howard and John Betjeman. Kinross began his writing career as a journalist on the editorial staffs of...

Bloch, Michael

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61w84zb (person)

Nicolson, Harold, 1886-1968

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64m9qmf (person)

Epithet: writer and diplomatist British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000001083.0x00010c Sir Harold George Nicolson was born in Teheran and he spent his life in the diplomatic corps at posts in Berlin, Teheran, Constantinople, and Madrid. At the end of his diplomatic career Nicolson pursued a career in journalism and politics, during which time he served as a member of the National Liberal Party in Parliment. ...

Stewart-Jones, Richard.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xq9vm8 (person)

Sackville-West, V. (Victoria), 1892-1962

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61834pn (person)

Victoria Sackville-West (1892-1962), English poet, novelist, and author of books on gardening, known for her association with the Bloomsbury group and the gardens she designed at Sissinghurst Castle. From the description of Passenger to Teheran, 1926. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 702191711 From the description of Victoria Sackville-West writings and commonplace book, 1910-1961. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 702184003 Vita Sackville-West was an English novelist, p...

Woolf, Leonard, 1880-1969

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6891dvz (person)

Leonard Woolf, husband of Virginia Woolf, was a unique thinker and theorist in his own right--sophisticated, principled, and humane. His legacy is inextricably tied with the Bloomsbury Set, one of the most influential literary groups of the 20th century, and with Hogarth Press, which he co-founded with his wife. From the description of Leonard Woolf letter to Wigram, 1935 June 10. (Pennsylvania State University Libraries). WorldCat record id: 52221264 Leonard Sidney Woolf (1...

Preston, Stuart

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6qd2tjb (person)

Lees-Milne, Helen.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jf7mnw (person)

Pope-Hennessy, James

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gk27s0 (person)

Woolf, Virginia, 1882-1941

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6qg9gvk (person)

Virginia Woolf (b. January 25, 1882, London, England–d. March 28, 1941, Ouse, River, Englnad) was a noted novelist and is now viewed as a pioneer of feminist literature. She was a member of the Bloomsbury Group, comprised of English artists, philosophers, and writers in the early twentieth century. She was also a co-founder and operator (along with husband Leonard Woolf) of Hogarth Press. Though she received little formal education, her father, a writer and editor with strong ...

Knollys, Eardley, 1902-1991

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61p5wq3 (person)

Lees-Milne, Alvilde

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6nm655h (person)

Betjeman, John, Sir, 1906-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sz60v3 (person)

Hill, Anne, 1911 or 1912-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6zs6qgp (person)

Epithet: of Add MS 22910 British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000568.0x0002a3 Epithet: wife of Heywood Hill British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000758.0x0002c1 Epithet: of Egerton MS 2722 British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000568.0x0002a4 ...

Kenworthy-Browne, J. A.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6p59gdb (person)

Lehmann, Rosamond, 1901-1990

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6pk0vww (person)

Rosamond Lehmann was an author, editor, and translator, probably most widely known as a novelist. Born in England to a well-to-do Edwardian family, she attended Cambridge and found success with her first novel, the semiautobiographical Dusty Answer. Her work had a particularly feminine quality, featuring lyrical prose and psychological insight, but slightly repetitive plots; she was often compared with Virginia Woolf as a stylist with a strongly feminine perspective. She also served as vice-pres...

Sitwell, Sacheverell

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6736qpz (person)

Sitwell was a poet, critic and author of volumes of verses. He died in 1988. From the description of The parrot's voice snaps out=No good to contradict=What he says he'll say again: Dry facts, like biscuits, = : calligraphed illustration. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 754863289 Sacheverell Sitwell was an English author and critic. Born into an aristocratic and gifted family, he joined with his brother Osbert and sister Edith to help change the tastes of British society in a...

Scott, Kathleen, 1878-1947

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63f4n0m (person)