Basil Bunting Material

Acquisition of nine typescript letters (signed) from Basil Bunting to Margaret De Silver, his patroness and the dedicatee of his first book, Edimiculum Matellarum, 1948-1953. The letters begin after a hiatus in Bunting's relationship with her, and give detailed reports on his current occupations and ambitions, together with a retrospective account of his work during the Second World War and his activities in the years since the publication of Redimiculm. They describe his work as a journalist in Teheran, and his difficulties in finding employment in England or America after his expulsion from Iran in 1951. The curriculum vitae was printed by Bunting and covers his career and skills up to 1950, with his own annotations updating it to 1952. It is a rare piece of autobiographical summary from a person who was not generally in favour of biographical studies.