
University of Texas, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center

Joan Rodker:

A Preliminary Inventory of Her Papers at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center



Descriptive Summary

Creator Rodker, Joan, 1915-
Title Joan Rodker Papers
Dates: 1921-2000
Abstract: This collection contains personal correspondence, diaries, dream notebooks, and personal papers, as well as materials relating to her father, John Rodker, and the Rodker family.
Extent 5 boxes (2.1 linear feet)
Language English.
Repository Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin

Scope and Contents

This small but important collection of Joan Rodker Papers contains not only her own personal correspondence evolving around her long-standing friendship with Doris Lessing, but also that of her father, publisher and novelist John Rodker. In addition, the collection contains a number of John Rodker's diaries and dream notebooks as well as personal papers. As such it is an important addition to the Ransom Center's existing collections of John Rodker and Doris Lessing.

The collection is arranged in three series: Series I. Joan Rodker Correspondence, 1920s-2000, Series II. Rodker Family Correspondence, and Series III. John Rodker Papers and Notebooks. The files maintain Rodker's labeling scheme.

The personal correspondence in Series I. reflects Joan Rodker's long-standing friendships with Betty Barnes (wife of Joe Barnes who edited Lessing's Golden Notebook at Simon and Schuster), Mary Campbell, Theodore Draper, Puji Haden-Guest, Doris Lessing, Jessica Mitford, Paddy and Peggy O'Connor, Helen Scott, and Antoinette Sainsbury. Interwoven throughout the correspondence is Rodker's connection with Doris Lessing, as the two shared many friends and acquaintances including: James Aldridge, Ted Allen, John Berger, Jenny Diski, Carole Klein (Lessing's unauthorized biographer), Hymie Levy, Murray Sayle, Clancy Sigal, and Lucille Warner.

The business and general literary correspondence includes queries by researchers interested in obtaining information on John Rodker and his literary associations (second wife Mary Butts, Frederick Etchells, Freud and the Imago Publishing Company, Wyndham Lewis, Isaac Rosenberg, and Wallace Stevens) as well as correspondence related to royalties and the disposition of Rodker's estate upon his death in 1955. Some letters are addressed to Marianne Rodker, John Rodker's fourth and last wife. When Marianne died in 1984, Joan Rodker assisted the heirs in dealing with literary inquiries and the organization and sale of her father's papers.

The family correspondence in Series II dates from the early 1920s to the present. Correspondents include John Rodker, his father David, brother Peter Roker, mother-in-law Ludmilla Savitzky (mother of Rodker's fourth wife Marianne), Marianne's daughter Dominique Tiry, his third wife artist Barbara Stanger McKenzie-Smith, Camilla Rodker Bagg (daughter of second wife, author Mary Butts), Joan Rodker, and her mother Sonia Cohen Joslen.

Important business and personal papers are found in Series III along with John Rodker's diaries, beginning in 1919 through 1940. These provide insight into Rodker's publishing ventures and personal life. Also present is a dream notebook (1926-1927) and a book of notes.

Included in this collection is a VHS video tape of Jessica Mitford's "Memorial Celebrations" at the Lyric Theatre in February 1997. The tape has been transferred to the Ransom Center film collection.


Restrictions

Access

Open for research


Administrative Information

Acquisition

Purchase, 2000

Processed by

Liz Murray, 2000


Joan Rodker Papers--Folder List

 

Series I. Joan Rodker Correspondence, 1920s-2000

box folder
1 1 Barnes, Betty and daughter Lila
Business correspondence
2 Carcanet Press and Tessa Sayle Literary and Dramatic Agency
3 Christie's
4 Rota, Anthony
5-6 Royalties
7 Crozier, Andrew
8 Diski, Jenny
[contains Doris Lessing letters]
9 Draper, Theodore
10-11 General, literary
box folder
2 1 General, literary (cont'd)
2 Haden-Guest, Jean (Puji)
3 Klein, Carole
4 Leclercq, Léna
5 Leftwich, Joseph
6 Lessing, Doris
7 Lessing-related correspondents
8 Lessing, Peter
9 Luke, Peter
10 Mitford, Jessica (Decca)
11 O'Connor, Patrick (Paddy) and Peggy
12 Sainsbury, Antoinette
box folder
3 1 Scott, Helen
2 Uhlman, Fred
3 Vedrès, Nicole
4 Warner, Lucille



 

Series II. Rodker Family Correspondence

box folder
3 5 Rodker, Barbara to John Rodker
Rodker, Camilla
6 1920s-1930s
7 1956-1998
8 Rodker, Joan at Wensley House, correspondence with parents
9 Rodker, Joan and John Rodker
Rodker, John
10 and Sonia Joslen
11 and David Rodker
box folder
4 1 Rodker, Marianne with John and Joan Rodker
2-3 Roker, Peter
4 Savitzsky, Ludmilla
5 Tiry, Dominique



 

Series III. John Rodker Papers and Notebooks

box folder
4 6 Birth certificate, declaration of name, last passport, and file on his Légion d'Honneur
7 Obits and correspondence re his death and estate; last passport
8 Business correspondence and related material
Diaries
box folder
5 1 April 4, 1919-July 26, 19--?
2 June 28, 1921-Jan. 30, 1927
3 July 18, 1932-June 24, 1936
[includes dreams]
4 June 13, 1940-Sept. 20, 1940?
5 Dreams, May 10, 1926-Feb. 12, 1927,
holograph notebook includes "Diary of Analysis," 3/6/19--?
6 Notes, n.d.
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/uthrc/00170/00170-P.html
www.lib.utexas.edu
crawl=CC-MAIN-2016-40
15013
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:ZCMQUSSKI4OVSREIQEJ3QAE52IGS7TCI
<urn:uuid:2caeba30-9d6b-4738-9241-efeef9a865b0>
2016-10-01T20:28:03Z
128.83.63.100
sha1:37QC3SPYOVBQUTSDIEGBP3PSKLGLDCAG
<urn:uuid:d799cec3-36d8-49b7-a825-7af4f4888133>
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/uthrc/00170/00170-P.html
response
<urn:uuid:531242f9-056f-4d57-9915-6bb25e78bc8e>
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-143-35-109.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2016-40
operator: CommonCrawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for September 2016
publisher: CommonCrawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf