MacCarthy mss., 1863-1991
Summary Information
Repository
Lilly Library (Indiana University, Bloomington)
Lilly Library
Indiana University
1200 E. Seventh St.
Bloomington, IN 47405-5500
Phone: 812-855-2452
Fax: 812-855-3143
Email: liblilly@indiana.edu
Creator
MacCarthy, Desmond,
1877-1952.
TitleMacCarthy mss., 1863-1991
Collection No.
LMC 1684
Extent
10,000 items
Language
Materials are in English
Abstract
Consists of the papers of drama and
literary critic Desmond MacCarthy, 1877-1952, and his wife, author Mary
(Warre-Cornish) MacCarthy, 1882-1953.
Access Restrictions
This collection is open for research.
Biographical Note
Desmond's first experience as an editor was with
New Quarterly and then
Eye Witness
(later renamed:
New Witness). In 1913 he began writing a weekly column for the
New
Statesman
eventually becoming literary editor in 1920, then the drama critic.
Desmond also contributed weekly articles to the London Sunday
Times and broadcast
literary talks for the BBC. Mary (or Molly, as she was known to most) wrote two
books,
A Pier and a Band and
A Nineteenth Century Childhood, as well as other works.
Although not particularly well-known for their writings, the MacCarthys were
surrounded by the colorful personalities that defined turn- of-the-century English
drama, art, literature, and society in general.
Arrangement
The collection is organized into the following series: I. Correspondence; II.
Writings; III. Miscellaneous
Scope and Content Note
The papers contain correspondence with their colleagues and friends as well as a
large quantity just between Desmond and Mary. Also included is the correspondence of
both Mary's and Desmond's families. Some of the notable correspondents are: Lady
Cynthia Mary Evelyn (Charteris) Asquith, Countess Margot Asquith, Enid Bagnold,
Maurice Baring, Sir James Matthew Barrie, Sir Max Beerbohm, Clive Bell, Vanessa
(Stephen) Bell, Hilaire Belloc, Lady Helen Violet Bonham Carter, Irene
Cooper-Willis, Ethel Anne Priscilla (Fane) Grenfell (Baroness Desborough), Thomas
Stearns Eliot, Edward Morgan Forster, Roger Fry, Duncan James Corrowr Grant, Harley
Granville-Barker, Bryan Walter Guinness, Thomas Hardy, Leslie Poles Hartley, John
Maynard Keynes, Hope Mirrlees, George Moore, George Edward Moore, Lady Ottoline
Violet Anne (Cavendish-Bentinck) Morrell, Raymond Mortimer, Violet Paget, Betsy
Graves Reyneau, Bertrand Russell, George Bernard Shaw, Logan Pearsall Smith, Giles
Lytton Strachey, George Macaulay Trevelyan, Robert Calverley Trevelyan, Arthur
Waley, Judith Anne Dorothea Wentworth Blunt-Lytton (Baroness Wentworth), Virginia
(Stephen) Woolf.
The writings contain many drafts and typescripts of Desmond's articles and a few
writings by Molly. Miscellaneous materials include calendars and diaries for both
and school reports for Desmond. In addition, there are school reports, writings and
other miscellaneous materials for members of both families.
Note on Indexing Term - "Bloomsbury Group": Correspondents include Clive and
Vanessa Bell, Roger Eliot Fry, Edward Morgan Forster, David Garnett, John Maynard Keynes, Bertrand
Russell, Lytton Strachey, and Leonard and Virginia Woolf.
-
Indexing Terms
-
-
Names
-
MacCarthy,
Desmond, 1877-1952 --Correspondence.
-
MacCarthy,
Mary, 1882-1953 --Correspondence.
-
MacCarthy,
Mary, 1882-1953.
-
Asquith,
Cynthia, Lady, 1887-1960.
-
Bagnold,
Enid.
-
Baring,
Maurice, 1874-1945.
-
Beerbohm,
Max, Sir, 1872-1956.
-
Bell,
Vanessa, 1879-1961.
-
Belloc,
Hilaire, 1870-1953.
-
Eliot, T.
S. (Thomas Stearns), 1888-1965.
-
Forster, E.
M. (Edward Morgan), 1879-1970.
-
Hardy,
Thomas, 1840-1928.
-
Keynes,
John Maynard, 1883-1946.
-
Morrell,
Ottoline Violet Anne Cavendish-Bentinck, Lady, 1873-1938.
-
Russell,
Bertrand, 1872-1970.
-
Shaw,
Bernard, 1856-1950.
-
Wentworth,
Lady, 1873-
-
Woolf,
Virginia, 1882-1941.
-
Administrative Information
Acquisition Information
Acquired: 1994
Usage RestrictionsPrior arrangements are not necessary before coming to the Library, however,
patrons from out of town are encouraged to communicate with the Library in
advance of their visits to ascertain availability of materials.
Photocopying permitted only with permission of the Curator of Manuscripts, Lilly
Library.
Preferred Citation
[Item], MacCarthy mss., Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington,
Indiana.
Processing InformationProcessed by Lilly Staff.
Completed in 1996
Series:
Box 1
Correspondence
Subseries:
Box 1
Colleagues and Friends
Most of the correspondence of Desmond and Molly MacCarthy with their
colleagues and friends is arranged in chronological order. Seven
individual files have been kept intact and filed alphabetically after
the chronological file.
Correspondents include:
-
View All (39)
-
Lady Cynthia Mary Evelyn (Charteris) Asquith
-
Countess Margot Asquith
-
Enid Bagnold
-
Maurice Baring
-
Sir James Matthew Barrie
-
Sir Max Beerbohm
-
Clive Bell
-
Vanessa (Stephen) Bell
-
Hilaire Belloc
-
Lady Helen Violet Bonham Carter
-
Irene Cooper-Willis
-
Ethel Anne Priscilla (Fane) Grenfell
-
Baroness Desborough
-
Thomas Stearns Eliot
-
Edward Morgan Forster
-
Roger Fry
-
Duncan James Corrowr Grant
-
Harley Granville-Barker
-
Bryan Walter Guinness
-
Thomas Hardy
-
Leslie Poles Hartley
-
John Maynard Keynes
-
Hope Mirrlees
-
George Moore
-
George Edward Moore
-
Lady Ottoline Violet Anne (Cavendish-Bentinck) Morrell
-
Raymond Mortimer
-
Violet Paget
-
Betsy Graves Reyneau
-
Bertrand Russell
-
George Bernard Shaw
-
Logan Pearsall Smith
-
Giles Lytton Strachey
-
George Macaulay Trevelyan
-
Robert Calverley Trevelyan
-
Arthur Waley
-
Judith Anne Dorothea Wentworth Blunt-Lytton
-
Baroness Wentworth
-
Virginia (Stephen) Woolf
Box 1
Chronological files
1876-1939
Box 2
1940 -
1991;
undated
Box 3
Alphabetical files
Folder 1-14
Abbott, Reymond
1895-1953
Folder 15-19
Asquith, Cynthia
1918-1953
Folder 20-21
Asquith, Margot
1917-1945
Folder 22-23
Baring, Maurice
1899-1945
Folder 24-27
Cooper-Willis, Irene
1916-1918
Folder 28-29
Morrell, Lady Ottoline
1914-1933
Folder 30-31
Woolf, Virginia
1911-1940
Subseries:
Box 4
Desmond and Molly
Correspondence between Desmond and Molly only. There are 279 letters from
Desmond to Molly and 377 letters from Molly to Desmond.
They are interfiled into one chronological arrangement.
Box 4
1901-1952;
undated
Subseries:
Box 5
Louise MacCarthy
Correspondence of Desmond and Molly with Desmond's mother Louise Jeanne
Wilhelmine (de la Chevallerie) MacCarthy.
Interfiled into one chronological arrangement.
Box 5
1861-1937;
undated
Box 6
1836-1904;
undated
Subseries:
Box 6
Family
Correspondence of the MacCarthy and Warre-Cornish families, excluding the
correspondence of Molly, Desmond and Louise MacCarthy with each
other.
The letters are interfiled into one chronological arrangement.
Correspondents include:
-
View All (15)
-
Vanessa Bell
-
Anne Thackeray
-
Ritchie Gerald Warre-Cornish
-
Francis Warre-Cornish
-
Maurice Baring
-
Lord Edward Christian David Gascoyne-Cecil
-
Mary Elizabeth Coleridge
-
Esmé Valerie (Fletcher) Eliot
-
Thomas Hardy
-
Henry James
-
Neville Stephen Lytton
-
Sir Edward Howard Marsh
-
Alan Noel Latimer Munby
-
Judith Anne Dorothea Wentworth Blunt-Lytton
-
Baroness Wentworth
Box 6
1836-1904;
undated
Box 7
1905-1958;
undated
Series:
Box 7
Writings
Subseries:
Box 7
Writings by Desmond MacCarthy
Writings are filed under the following alphabetically-arranged subjects
assigned by Desmond.
Types of writings include: dramatic criticism, book reviews, and other
articles for newspapers and magazines; talks and lectures; radio
broadcasts; short stories and books.
Box 7
Art
Art of Reading
Bacon, Francis
Barrie, James
Beerbohm, Max
Belloc, Hilaire
Bennett, Arnold
Bibesco, Elizabeth
Bloomsbury
Bronte, Charlotte
Byron, George Gordon Byron
Box 8
Capek, Josef
Carlyle, Thomas
Carroll
Chesterton, Gilbert Keith
Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich
Claudel, Paul
Cobden-Sickert, Ellen
Melicent
Cocteau, Jean
Congreve, William
Coward, Noel
Craig, Gordon
Criticism
A Critic's Daybook
Dalcroze, Jaques
Dane, Clemence
D'Annunzio, Gabriele
Darwin, Charles Galton
Daviot, Gordon
Defoe, Daniel
de la Mare, Walter
Dell, Ethel May
de Quincey, Thomas
de Selincourt, Ernest
Dibdin, Charles
Dickens, Charles
Din, Nasr-ed
Diogenes, etc.
Distinguished Villa
Dogs
Donne, John
Dostoevsky, Theodore M.
Drama
Drinkwater
Dryden, John
Eliot, T.S.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo
The English Character
Firbank, Ronald
Fleming, Marjory
Ford, Lionel
Forster, E. M.
Fry, Roger
Gallagher, Frank
Galsworthy, John
The Gentleman
Ghosts
Gosse, Edmund
Granville-Barker, Harley
Hardy, Thomas
Hawthorne, Nathaniel
Hawtrey, Charles
Hazlitt, William
Heine, Heinrich
Herbert, Aubrey
Herrick, Robert
Holcroft, Thomas
Holmes, Sherlock
Hsiung, Shih-li
Hughes, Richard
Humanities
Humour
Hunt, Leigh
Huxley, Aldous
Ibsen, Henrik
The Irish Players
James, Henry
Johnson, Samuel
Journalists
Box 9
Kipling, Rudyard
Lamartine, Alphonse de
Lamb, Charles
Landor, Walter Savage
Lang, Andrew
Lawrence, D.H.
Lee, Vernon
Lemaitre, Jules
Lipscomb, William Percy
Literature
Louÿs, Pierre
Lucas, Edward Verrall
Lucas, F. L.
Lytton, Bulwer
Mackenzie, Ronald
Maeterlinck, Maurice
Marillier, Christabel
Martinez Sierra, Gregorio
Masculine & Feminine
Masefield, John
Maugham, Somerset
Maurois, Andre
Melville
Merezhkovsky, Dmitry
Sergeyevich
Meredith, George
Merrick, Hope
Milton, John
Montaigne, Michel de
Moore, George
Munro, Charles Kirkpatrick
Musset, Alfred de
Names
Napoleon I
New Statesman
Nichols, Robert
Nicolson, Sir Arthur
Nietzsche, Friedrich
The Nineteen-Twenties
Nonsense
The Novel
Obey, Andre
Obscenity and the Law
O'Casey, Sean
Old Age
O'Neill, Eugene
Order of Merit
Ould, Hermon
Oxford, Lord
Pain
Paley, Arthur
Parnell, Charles Stuart
Peacock, Thomas Love
Pencraft
Penn-Smith, Frank
Pepys, Samuel
Phillips
Pierrot
Pinero, Arthur
Pirandello, Luigi
Pixerecourt, Guilbert de
Plimsoll
Poe, Edgar Allan
Poetry
Pope, Alexander
Portraits and Criticism
Powys, Llewelyn
Priestley, J.B.
Prince, F.T.
Proust, Marcel
Psychology and psychoanalysis
Pushkin, Aleksandr
Sergeevich
Box 10
Rabelais, Francois
Reason and common sense
Religion
Renan, Ernest
Richardson and Proust
Ricketts, Charles
Ritchie, Arthur
Robespierre, Maximilien
Robinson, Lennox
Romanticists
Roseberry, Lord
Rossetti family
Rothschild, Henri de
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Ruskin, John
Russian literature,
Russian stories
Saintsbury, George
Sala, George Augustus
Sanger, Lord George
Santayana, George
Savoir, Alfred
Schopenhauer, Arthur
Scott, Sir Walter
Shakespeare, William
Shaw, George Bernard
Sheppard, Jack
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley
Sherwood, Robert Emmet
Short stories,
Sidney, Sir Philip
Sign of the World's End
Simenon, Georges
Sitwell, Osbert
Sitwell, Edith
Smith, Sydney
Social Distinctions in the Past
Speeches
Spiders
Box 11
Stael, Madame de
Statues and Tailors
Stein, Gertrude
Stendahl
Stephen, Leslie
Sterne, Laurence
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Strachey, Lytton
Strindberg, August
Style
Sudermann, Hermann
Suffragettes
Surtees, Robert Smith
Swift, Jonathan
Swinburne, Algernon Charles
Symons, Arthur
Synge, John Millington
Talks
Talleyrand-Perigord, Charles
Taylor, Jeremy
Tears
Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson,
baron
Tetrazzini, Luisa
Thackeray, William Makepeace
Theatre Galley
Thompson, Francis
To a Day Dreamer
Toller, Ernst
Tolstoy, Alexei
Toynbee, William
Tragedy
Translation
Travel books
Tree, Sir Herbert
Trelawny, Edward John
Trevelyan, George Macaulay
Treves, Sir Frederick
Trollope, Anthony
Turgenev, Ivan Sergeevich
Van Gogh, Vincent
Verlaine, Paul
Verne, Jules
Vildrac, Charles
Vinci, Leonardo da
Voltaire
Wallace, Edgar
Walpole, Horace
Walpole, Hugh
Walpole, Robert
Walters, [Miss]
War books
Watson, Sir William
Webb, Beatrice
Webling, Archie Frederic
Webster, John
Wellington, Arthur Wellesley
Wells, H.G.
Wharton, Edith
White, Gilbert
Whitman, Walt
Wilde, Oscar
Wilder, Thornton
Williams, Emlyn
Wilson, Harriette
Winter, Keith
The Wonder Zoo
Woolf, Virginia
Words
Writing
Wyatt, Thomas
Yeats, Jack Butler
Yeats, William Butler
Zangwill, Israel
Zweig, Stefan
Box 12
Folder 1-3
Unidentified writings and miscellaneous pages
Folder 4-11
14 Notebooks
Folder 12-18
Alphabetical and chronological lists of articles including
those written for
Eyewitness,
1911-1912,
New Statesman,
1913-1928 ,
The Sunday Times,
1928-1952
Folder 19-26
Tear sheets of articles written by Desmond from the following
newspapers/magazines:
Empire Review,
The Eyewitness,
The Listener,
The New Statesman,
1905-1941,
and
The New Witness
Box 13
Folder 1-11
Tear sheets from the series "The World of Books" in
The Sunday Times,
1928-1952
Four scrapbooks containing clippings for the series "The World of
Books" in
The Sunday Times:
1938,
1939,
1949/50,
March 1950 to
May 1952
Folder 12
Tear sheets and clippings from other magazines and
newspapers
Folder 13
Tear sheets from
Live and
Letters
Subseries:
Box 13
Writings by Molly MacCarthy
Folder 14
Notes on Bloomsbury
Folder 15
A Pier and A Band (contract only)
Folder 16
Retrospect, Sept. 1939-Feb.1941
Folder 17
Miscellaneous pages
Subseries:
Box 13
Writings by Others
Folder 18
British Orchids, "...with love from Jocelyn [Brooke],
Christmas 1950 "First Published
1917"
- "A correspondent..." Article about Theodore Llewelyn
Davies
- 'Esseta Emar [poem], Sept.
1914
- Extracts from Mr. Punch's History of Modern England, Vol. IV,
by Charles L. Graves
Folder 19
The Garden of Delights, poem by Ursula (Lock) Vaughan
Williams
- The Hound of Heaven, by Betsy Graves Reyneau
- The Last of Miss Vellum, by ?
- A Note on Desmond MacCarthy, by Jocelyn Brooke
- Note on Falstaff's Hallucinations, by Sydney J. Cole,
Feb. 1944
- The Real Tripitaka, by Arthur Waley
- Resolution passed at the Congress of Intellectuals in
Wroclaw
Folder 20
Clippings and tear sheets of articles about Desmond
Folder 21-24
Reviews of Desmond's books: Criticism, Experience, Life and
Letters, and Portraits
Folder 14
Miscellaneous clippings and tear sheets
Series:
Box 14
Miscellaneous
Subseries:
Box 14
Desmond
Folder 5-6
Autobiographical notes - loose pages and notebook
Folder 7-8
British Broadcasting Corporation, materials for Literary
Advisory Committee and misc. related papers
Folder 9-10
Calendars: 1938,
1943,
1945,
1946,
1948,
1950,
1951
Folder 11
Catalogue of books from the Library of Criticism and English
Literature of the late Sir Desmond MacCarthy, on sale by James Bain
Limited... 1953.
Printed. 2 copies
Folder 12
Diary, 1900
Folder 13
School reports, 1885 - 1897
Folder 14
Travel notes, 1902
Folder 15
Miscellany
Subseries:
Box 14
Molly
Folder 16
Address book, 1931
Folder 17
Book of families
Made for Michael MacCarthy by his mother, Molly MacCarthy in December
1945; and list of visitors
from 1942-1952
Folder 18
Calendars: 1948,
1952
Folder 19-21
Diaries: 1896,
1903,
1907,
1920
Folder 22
Cottage Garden diary: Aug. 1898-Nov. 1916
Folder 23
Miscellany
Subseries:
Box 14
MacCarthy family
Includes a list of birthdays, list of investments, and other
financialpapers
Subseries:
Box 14
Warre-Cornish family
Includes a diary dated 1867, talks
given to Eton students (1877-1878) and other writings by Molly's father,
Francis. There are school reports for her brothers Francis, Gerald and
Hubert, and a journal dated June 1884 written by Hubert's wife,
Laurencina (Meinertzhagen) Warre-Cornish as well as other family
papers.
Subseries:
Box 14
Folder 31-32
Miscellany