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Mantel (Hilary) Papers
mssMN
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
The Huntington Library
Title: Hilary Mantel papers
Creator:
Mantel, Hilary, 1952-2022
Identifier/Call Number: mssMN
Physical Description:
116 Linear Feet
(132 boxes, 3 oversize folders)
Date (inclusive): 1980-2016
Abstract: The collection is comprised primarily
of the manuscripts and correspondence of British novelist Hilary Mantel (1952-2022).
Manuscripts include short stories, lectures, interviews, scripts, radio plays, articles and
reviews, as well as various drafts and notes for Mantel's novels; also included: diaries,
photographs, audio materials and ephemera.
Language of Material: Materials are in
English.
Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at
the Huntington Library for more information.
SEALED: Boxes 47-52: Mantel's diaries are sealed for the lifetime of Mantel's widower,
Gerald McEwen.
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from
or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The
responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining
necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
[Identification of item]. Hilary Mantel papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino,
California.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Part I was purchased from Hilary Mantel, February 2001 (Accession 2083).
Addenda was purchased from Hilary Mantel, 2005 (Accession 2460).
Part II consists of material purchased from Hilary Mantel in 2009 (Accession 2606) and
material purchased in 2016 (CSmH_2016_273).
According to the author's notations, the original title for
An Experiment in Love
was On Thinner Ice.
Manuscripts with the original title have been catalogued under
the published title,
An Experiment in Love.
Among the addenda are several versions of Hilary Mantel's 2005 novel
Beyond
Black.
Various dated drafts of the chapters of this manuscript were received in no
particular order, with only two full drafts among the papers. Individual chapters of the
novel therefore, have been cataloged separately or in small groups as grouped by the author,
and organized by date. The two full drafts have been cataloged as whole items, but are
parsed out (a)-(m) by chapter and the collation lines reflect each individual chapter. The
whole drafts are cataloged chronologically with all other drafts.
Furthermore, the numbering of the chapters and the prologue were changed by the author
partway through the writing process. The existing number was used in cataloging each chapter
regardless of the chapter number in the published form. In particular therefore, early
versions of a chapter may be numbered one integer lower than the published chapter, and
parties interested in all versions of a particular chapter should be aware of this when
requesting the manuscripts.
The Hilary Mantel Papers were cataloged over a span of 12 years and multiple acquisitions,
resulting in a collection organized by accretion, with each new acquisition added on in
sequence at the end of the collection, rather than interspersed with similar or related
materials. Therefore, each separate acquisition must be searched to locate all of the
relevant manuscripts or correspondence by a particular author.
Because the collection was cataloged over a span of 12 years, the names and dates of
various people in the collection have changed, usually in order to conform to changing
standards in national cataloging practices; in other instances, an individual remarried or
died. It was not practical for us to retroactively update the previously cataloged names on
the folders or in the Finding Aid, so researchers will find different forms of names used
for the same individuals in discrete sections of the collection.
British author Hilary Mantel was born in Derbyshire, England on July 6, 1952; she married
Gerald McEwen in 1972. Mantel's work includes articles, book reviews, novels, personal
memoirs, short stories, and historical fiction. In 2009 Mantel was awarded the Booker Prize
for her novel
Wolf Hall and in 2012 she was awarded the Booker Prize a second
time for
Bring Up the Bodies. Among many other awards and prizes, Mantel was
appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2006 and Dame Commander of
the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2014. Dame Hilary Mantel died at a hospital in
Exeter, England, on September 22, 2022, from complications of a stroke.
Scope and Content Note -- Part I and Addenda
The collection is comprised primarily of manuscripts and correspondence of British author
Hilary Mantel (1952-2022). Manuscripts include short stories, lectures, radio plays,
articles and reviews, as well as various drafts and notes for Mantel's novels. Notably, all
four drafts of A Place of Greater Safety are present, including Mantel's early drafts
written while living in Saudi Arabia. Copious notes for
The Giant, O'Brien
are present, as well as significant notes for
Fludd and
A Change of
Climate.
The 2005 addenda include prolific notes and drafts of
Beyond
Black.
Personal and business correspondence with a number of other prominent authors and figures
is present, including Elizabeth Jane Howard, Barbara Epstein, Norman Hampson, Lesley
Glaister, Miranda Miller and Auberon Waugh. Email strings have been catalogued according to
the oldest full email present, with added entries made for the authors of email replies and
significant addressees, excepting Hilary Mantel.
SEALED: Boxes 47-52 contain Mantel's diaries and are sealed for the lifetime of Mantel's
widower, Gerald McEwen.
Mantel's engagement books are monthly planners to cover appointment and events from 1989-
1997.
Ephemera includes printed items by and about Hilary Mantel, research materials, variants
of cover art, publisher publicity for Mantel's books, and literature about various festivals
and lectures with which Mantel has been involved. Of note are some materials relating to
Mantel's life in Saudi Arabia, influential in her novel
Eight Months on Ghazzah
Street
: an Arabic calendar, maps of Jeddah and a psychological evaluation of
Mantel and her husband, Gerald McEwen.
Audio tapes and CDs include interviews with Hilary Mantel, readings from her novels, and
various radio programs Mantel wrote for or was involved with.
Photographs include snapshots and professional portraits of Hilary Mantel and others. Some
photographs appear to have been taken for book jackets.
Scope and Content Note -- Part II
The manuscripts in Part II include articles, short stories, interviews, and notes and
drafts for various novels, including
Giving Up the Ghost and the first two
novels in Mantel's Thomas Cromwell trilogy:
Wolf Hall and
Bring Up the
Bodies
. This material includes numerous drafts of the novels, play scripts and
television adaptations based on the novels.
The correspondence includes Business Correspondence and Personal Correspondence; the
Business Correspondence contains letters and emails from Mantel's publishers, agents,
newspapers and magazines, and a large number of requests for Mantel to speak at various
conferences and events. The Personal Correspondence is mainly letters and emails from
family, friends and personal fan letters.
There are a number of topics covered extensively in both correspondence series:
Endometriosis, Mantel's Booker Prize wins in 2009 and 2012, Mantel's work being plagiarized
in 2005 by Judith Kelly in her memoir
Rock Me Gently and the controversy
caused by Mantel in her "Royal Bodies" comments in 2013.
This material also includes a small number of photographs, mainly snapshots and studio
portraits, CDs and ephemera. The ephemera contains material about festivals, lectures,
honorary degrees, financial reports and annotated envelopes; also included are a small
number of engagement diaries.
Organized in the following series:
- Manuscripts (Boxes 1-28)
- Correspondence (Boxes 29-46)
- Diaries (Boxes 47-52)
- Engagement Books (Box 53)
- Ephemera (Boxes 54-55)
- Audio Tapes and CDs (Box 56)
- Oversize (Box 57)
- Photographs (Box 58)
- Extra Oversize (Boxes 59-60)
- Extra Oversize Loose Folders (3)
- Addenda - Manuscripts (Boxes 61-78)
- Addenda - Correspondence (Boxes 79-80)
- Addenda - Ephemera (Box 81)
- Part II - Manuscripts (Boxes 82-103)
- Part II - Business Correspondence (Boxes 104-115)
- Part II - Personal Correspondence (Boxes 116-125)
- Part II - Photographs, Audio Visual and Ephemera (Boxes 126-132)
Individual call numbers included in the collection: mssMN 1-3264.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Apartheid -- South Africa
Endometriosis
Man Booker Prize
Plagiarism -- Great Britain -- History -- 21st century
V.S. Pritchett Prize
Women novelists, English -- 20th century -- Archives
Women novelists, English -- 21st century -- Archives
World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives
Famagusta (Cyprus)
Foulsham (Norfolk, England)
Hadfield (Derbyshire, England)
Saudi Arabia
South Africa -- Religious life and customs
Adaptations (literary works) -- Great Britain -- 20th
century
Adaptations (literary works) -- Great Britain -- 21st
century
Clippings (Books, newspapers, etc.)
Ephemera -- Great Britain -- 20th century
Ephemera -- Great Britain -- 21st century
Family papers.
Interviews -- Great Britain -- 20th century
Interviews -- Great Britain -- 21st century
Letters (correspondence) -- Great Britain -- 20th century
Manuscripts -- Great Britain -- 20th century
Manuscripts -- Great Britain -- 21st century
Photographs.
Scripts (documents) -- Great Britain -- 20th century
Scripts (documents) -- Great Britain -- 21st century
Anne Boleyn, Queen, consort of Henry VIII, King of
England, 1507-1536
Bailey, John, 1940-
Clayton, G. H. (Geoffrey Hare), 1884-1957
Cranmer, Thomas, 1489-1556
Cromwell, Thomas, Earl of Essex, 1485?-1540
Diana, Princess of Wales, 1961-1997
Elizabeth II, Queen of Great Britain, 1926-
Henry VIII, King of England, 1491-1547
Holbein, Hans, 1497-1543
Robespierre, Maximilien, 1758-1794
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616
Wolsey, Thomas, 1475?-1530
Arvon Foundation
Bexley Hospital
Royal Society of Literature (Great Britain) -- Great
Britain
Ali, Monica, 1967-
Atherton, Richard
Athill, Diana
Atkinson, Kate
Bainbridge, Beryl, 1932-2010
Barker, Pat
Barr, Pat, 1934-
Beaven, Derek
Benn, Tony, 1925-
Boylan, Clare
Callil, Carmen
Carey, John, 1934-
Cooper, Jilly
Drabble, Margaret, 1939-
Dunant, Sarah
Dunmore, Helen, 1952-
Epstein, Barbara, 1928-2006
Ewart, Gavin
Flanders, Judith
Gaskill, Malcolm
Gee, Maggie, 1948-
Glaister, Lesley, 1956-
Goff, Martyn
Hackett, Joyce
Hampson, Norman
Hastings, Selina
Haynes, Jane
Hill, Susan, 1942-
Holroyd, Michael
Howard, Elizabeth Jane
Huddleston, Trevor, 1913-1998
Jack, Ian, 1945-
James, P.D.
Kavanagh, P. J. (Patrick Joseph), 1931-
Kneale, Matthew, 1960-
Langley, Lee
Leader, Zachary
Lefanu, Sarah
MacCulloch, Diarmaid
McWilliam Candia
Meehan, Michael, 1948-
Miller, Miranda, 1950-
Moore, Brian, 1921-1999
Moore, Charles, 1956-
Morrison, Blake
Motion, Andrew, 1952-
Mount, Ferdinand, 1939-
Naipaul, V. S. (Vidiadhar Surajprasad), 1932-
Palliser, Charles, 1947-
Parker, Peter, 1954-
Parks, Tim
Poulton, Mike
Read, Piers Paul, 1941-
Rogers, Jane, 1952-
Ross, Alan, 1922-2001
Rota, Anthony
Runcie, James, 1959-
Scannell, Vernon
Schaeffer, Susan Fromberg
Simpson, Helen, 1957-
Sontag, Susan, 1933-2004
Stevenson, Anne, 1933 Jan. 3-
Straughan, Peter
Summerscale, Kate, 1965-
Taylor, D. J. (David John), 1960-
Thorpe, Adam, 1956-
Trapido, Barbara
Treglown, Jeremy
Trevor, William, 1928-
Trollope, Joanna
Unsworth, Barry, 1930-
Vansittart, Peter
Vaughn Williams, Ursula
Waugh, Auberon
Westaway, Jane
Willis, James H. (James Herbert), 1928-