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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
Sieveking, Lance, 1896-1972.

Collection No.
LMC 2208

Extent
15,000 items

Language
Materials are in English.

Abstract
The Sieveking mss., 1724-1971, consist of the papers of Lancelot (Lance) de Giberne Sieveking, 1896-1974, author, playwright, and pioneer of BBC radio programming.

Access Restrictions

This collection is open for research.

Biographical Note

Sieveking was born in Harrow, a borough of London, England. He started to write stories at the age of six, and began his first novel when he was 13. Sieveking's education and literary ambitions were interrupted when the First World War broke out in 1914. Serving with the Royal Navy Air Service as a pilot, Sieveking's plane was shot down in 1917, after which he became a POW in Germany. After the war, he returned to England and attended St. Catharine's College in Cambridge.

The bulk of Sieveking's career was spent working for the BBC. Starting as an assistant to the Director of Education, Sieveking eventually moved on to adapting well-known novels, such as The Magician's Nephew, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde into radio plays. He also wrote original works, such as Silence in Heaven, and was the BBC's drama script editor for ten years (1940-1950). Sieveking also worked in the early days of television and was responsible for one of the first British television plays - The Man with the Flower in His Mouth, an adaptation of Luigi Pirandello's play L'uomo dal fiore in bocca . The TV special, viewed by an audience that included Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, aired on July 14, 1930, and was considered a successful experiment. After retiring in 1956, Sieveking continued to write frequently, though many of his works went unpublished.

Arrangement

The collection is organized into the following series: I. Writings; II. Correspondence; III. Legal; IV. Genealogy; V. Miscellaneous; VI. Scrapbooks; VII. Photographs; VIII. Artwork; IX. Music; X. Audio-Visual; XI. Realia.

Scope and Content Note

Writings include drafts and proofs of Sieveking's novels, stories, plays, and poems. Writings also include radio plays that Lance Sieveking adapted from well-known works by authors such as C. S. Forester, C. S. Lewis, J. B. Priestley, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jules Verne, and H. G. Wells. Correspondence is both personal and professional in nature, including letters from Wells and Lewis regarding adaptations of their work. Legal materials include BBC contracts and wills from various family members. Genealogy materials include information about both the Sieveking and Giberne families. Photographs include pictures from the First World War, including aerial photos. Artwork includes watercolors and sketches by George Giberne. Music includes sheet music that accompanied Lance Sieveking's radio plays. Realia includes hair from various family members, and a piece of a wedding dress.

Note on Indexing Term - "Bloomsbury Group": Included are letters from Edward Morgan Forster.

Note on Indexing Term - "Radio": Present are manuscripts for over 150 radio plays written, adapted or produced by Sieveking for the British Broadcasting Corporation, as well as BBC correspondence and memorabilia.

Note on Indexing Term - "Women": Includes diverse notes and diaries of Isabel de Giberne Sieveking, 1857-1936, mother of Lancelot and diaries and a sketchbook of Maria (Smith) Giberne, 1822-1911, mother of Isabel. Also contains much material of other female family members.

Note on Indexing Term - "World War, 1914-1918": Lancelot de Giberne Sieveking and his brother, Valentine Edgar Sieveking both served in World War I and the collections holds family correspondence from this period. Also included are many photographs from the World War I period showing airplanes, North Africa and from Lance's captivity as a German prisoner-of-war.

• Indexing Terms

• • Names
  • Sieveking, Lance, 1896-1972 --Correspondence.
  • Amis, Kingsley --Correspondence.
  • Chesterton, Frances, 1875-1938 --Correspondence.
  • Clouston, J. Storer (Joseph Storer), 1870-1944 --Correspondence.
  • Forster, E. M. (Edward Morgan), 1879-1970 --Correspondence.
  • Housman, Laurence, 1865-1959 --Correspondence.
  • Huxley, Aldous, 1894-1963 --Correspondence.
  • Lewis, C. S. (Clive Staples), 1898-1963 --Correspondence.
  • Mann, Horace, Sir, 1701-1786 --Correspondence.
  • Maugham, W. Somerset (William Somerset), 1874-1965 --Correspondence.
  • Waugh, Evelyn, 1903-1966 --Correspondence.
  • Wells, H. G. (Herbert George), 1866-1946 --Correspondence.
• • Topics
  • Authors, English --20th century --Correspondence.
  • Authors, English --20th century.
  • Bloomsbury Group
  • Art
  • Radio
  • Women
  • World War, 1914-1918

Administrative Information