ARCHIVE papers belonging to former Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis have been donated to Oxford’s Bodleian Library by his children, film star son Daniel Day-Lewis and daughter Tamasin Day-Lewis.
A contemporary of WH Auden, Mr Day Lewis studied classics at Oxford University’s Wadham College, was one of the most renowned Anglo-Irish poets of the 20th century, and was Poet Laureate from 1968 until his death in 1972, aged 68.
The archive accompanies an initial literary bequest from the poet’s wife, actress Jill Balcon, following her death in 2009.
The archive fills 54 boxes and includes letters to both Mr Day-Lewis CBE and Ms Balcon, letters and papers regarding the award of the Poet Laureateship, correspondence with publishers, and manuscript and typescript drafts of poems, lectures, and TV and radio scripts.
It includes letters to and from writers including Sir Kingsley Amis, WH Auden, Sir John Betjeman, Philip Larkin and Christopher Isherwood.
Tamasin and Daniel Day-Lewis issued a statement saying: “We are thrilled that our father’s manuscripts are going to be housed at the Bodleian and certain that he would have been honoured and pleased that they had been accepted. Oxford played an important part in our father’s life.”
The library will host an event today in which Ms Day-Lewis will discuss the work of her father.
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