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James Elroy Flecker Collection

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Held at: Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division [Contact Us]

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.

Overview and metadata sections

Flecker

James Elroy Flecker was an English poet, novelist, and playwright. He studied at Trinity College, Oxford, and Caius College, Cambridge. From 1910 he was in the consular service in the Eastern Mediterranean. His most widely known poem is To a Poet a Thousand Years Hence . He died of tuberculosis in Davos, Switzerland. His death at the age of thirty was described at the time as "unquestionably the greatest premature loss that English literature has suffered since the death of Keats."

The collection consists of selected correpondence and manuscripts of James Elroy Flecker, the English poet, novelist, and playwright. Included are manuscripts of an autograph poem titled "Golden" and Flecker's final examination papers from the spring of 1910 at Caius College, Cambridge, where he was learning "Oriental" languages. The examination papers--in English as well as Arabic, Persian and Turkish--are in Flecker's hand and bear his signature at the top righthand corner of each page. The papers were translations from English into either Arabic, Persian, or Turkish, and from these languages to English. The examination papers were given by Flecker's Professor Browne to Sir Sydney Cockerell on May 3, 1920, for safekeeping.

Correspondence includes a note card to the publisher Elkin Matthews regarding the publishing of Flecker's book The Bridge of Fire . There are four letters and three postcards from Flecker to the British poet Harold Monro written from Beirut and Switzerland while he was ill, discussing his illness, poetry, and publishing his poems; and there is one letter addressed to "Masters." Also included is a silver gelatin print of Flecker, which was "Printed by Mesdames Morter, London."

The collection was formed as a result of a Departmental practice of combining into one collection material of various accessions relating to a particular person, family, or subject.

Examination papers were purchased on January 13, 1952 .

Letter to Masters and "Golden" poem were purchased in 1953 .

Autograph manuscript translation from Persian was purchased on January 7, 1954 .

Letters to Monro were purchased on May 1, 1958 .

For preservation reasons, original analog and digital media may not be read or played back in the reading room. Users may visually inspect physical media but may not remove it from its enclosure. All analog audiovisual media must be digitized to preservation-quality standards prior to use. Audiovisual digitization requests are processed by an approved third-party vendor. Please note, the transfer time required can be as little as several weeks to as long as several months and there may be financial costs associated with the process. Requests should be directed through the Ask Us Form.

This collection was processed by Dina Britain on May 19, 2009 . Finding aid written by Elizabeth Mulvey on June 15, 2009 .

No appraisal information is available.

Publisher
Manuscripts Division
Finding Aid Author
Elizabeth Mulvey
Finding Aid Date
2009
Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Use Restrictions

Single copies may be made for research purposes. To cite or publish quotations that fall within Fair Use, as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission is required. For instances beyond Fair Use, it is the responsibility of the researcher to determine whether any permissions related to copyright, privacy, publicity, or any other rights are necessary for their intended use of the Library's materials, and to obtain all required permissions from any existing rights holders, if they have not already done so. Princeton University Library's Special Collections does not charge any permission or use fees for the publication of images of materials from our collections, nor does it require researchers to obtain its permission for said use. The department does request that its collections be properly cited and images credited. More detailed information can be found on the Copyright, Credit and Citations Guidelines page on our website. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us through the Ask Us! form.

Collection Inventory

Exam papers of James Elroy Flecker while at Cambridge University, 1910. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

1 photograph (silver gelatin print) of James Elroy Flecker by "Mesdames Morter, London", undated. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

"Golden" poem with transcript by James Elroy Flecker, undated. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Letter from James Elroy Flecker to "Mr. Masters", 1914 April. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Card from James Elroy Flecker to Elkin Matthews, undated. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

4 Letters, 3 Cards from James Elroy Flecker to Harold Monro, undated. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Print, Suggest