George Barker Collection approximately 1932-1970, undated MS.1986.010 http://hdl.handle.net/2345/1195
Archives and Manuscripts Department John J. Burns Library Boston College 140 Commonwealth Avenue Chestnut Hill 02467 library.bc.edu/burns/contact URL: http://www.bc.edu/burns Table of Contents
Summary Information ...... 3 Administrative Information ...... 4 Biographical note ...... 5 Scope and Contents ...... 5 Collection Inventory ...... 6
George Barker Collection MS.1986.010
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Creator: Barker, George, 1913-1991 Title: George Barker collection ID: MS.1986.010 Date [inclusive]: approximately 1932-1970, undated Physical Description 1 Linear Feet (1 container) Language of the English Material: Abstract: The collection documents the career of twentieth-century English author George Barker through correspondence, typescripts of poems, a signed typescript of the essay "Conspectus for the Converts," and two signed broadsides of the poem "What is Mercy and a Voice." Preferred Citation
Identification of item, Box number, Folder number, George Baker collection, MS.1986.010, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.
George Barker Collection MS.1986.010
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Publication Information Processed by Dana Lawton, 2005; Edward Copenhagen, 2006; AnneMarie Anderson, 2010; Rachael Young in 2018. This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace.
Restrictions on access Collection is open for research.
Provenance Because the current accessioning system was not used until January 1986, it is not possible to know exactly the dates of acquisition of materials received before that time. Signed copies of "What is Mercy and a Voice" were purchased from Bertram Rota, Ltd. in 1986.
Restrictions on use These materials are made available for use in research, teaching and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright Law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source. The original authors may retain copyright to the materials.
George Barker Collection MS.1986.010
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George Granville Barker was born in 1913 in Loughton, Essex in England. He was the fourth of five children of George Barker (1879–1965) and his wife, Marion Frances Taaffe (1881–1953). Barker attended Marlborough Road elementary school and the London Oratory, but he left school at fourteen to work towards a career as a professional writer.
In 1932 Barker submitted a typescript to the editor of The Adelphi, John Middleton Murray. Murray hired him as a book reviewer, allowing Barker to make connections with influential poets and writers of the time, including T. S. Eliot and W. B. Yeats. In 1935 Eliot helped Barker to publish his first book, Poems. His next two works, the fictional Janus (1935) and the long surrealistic poem Calamiterror (1937) were not as well received, although the 1940 publication of Lament and Terror cemented Barker's success as a writer.
In 1933 Barker married Jessie Winifred Theresa Woodward. He had a number of affairs, including one with Elizabeth Smart, who wrote about it in By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept (1945). From 1944 to 1950 Barker published three more books: The Lyrics of Eros in Dogma (1944), News of the World (1950), and The Dead Seagull (1950).
In the early sixties, Barker traveled to Rome, Italy. The trip provided inspiration for The View from a Blind I (1962) and True Confession (1964). In 1963 Barker met the Scottish writer Elspeth Barker (1940-); the couple eventually married and had five children. For the remainder of his life, Barker spent time writing his own poetry and teaching at American universities in New York, Wisconsin, and Florida. Barker's work is best known for its vivid descriptions of rural and family life, lamentations of societal decline, and meditations on Catholicism. These elements are most skillfully brought together in his poetic masterpiece, Anno Domini (1983). Barker died on October 27, 1991.
Source:
Fraser, Robert. "Barker, George Granville (1913–1991)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. 1 Nov. 2005 https://doi.org/10.1093/ ref:odnb/49571.
Scope and Contents
The George Barker collection contains letters by Barker, including two to editor John Middleton Murray, typescripts of poems, a signed typescript of the essay "Conspectus for the Converts," and two signed broadsides of the poem "What is Mercy and a Voice."
George Barker Collection MS.1986.010
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Letters to John Middleton Murray, undated box 1 folder 2
Letters to Julian and Ralph, undated box 1 folder 3
Letter to Geoffrey Hazard, 1970 May 28 box 1 folder 4
Poems and essay, typescripts, approximately 1932, undated box 1 folder 1
"What is Mercy and a Voice," signed broadside, 1970 box 1 folder 5
George Barker Collection MS.1986.010
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