Papers, manuscripts and letters of the novelist Stephen Gilbert (1912-2010)
MS45/6 - Postcard Depicting Giant's Causeway (23-02-1918)
MS/45/8/1 - Soldier’s Service and Pay Book Stephen Gilbert’s service book relating to his service in the Reserve
MS45/8/3 - Certificate of Discharge Certificate of Discharge for Gilbert, having been appointed to a Commission. 13 December 1940
MS45/3/6/1 - ‘While All the World is Tumbling Down’
MS45/5/1 - Photograph Album which belonged to Stephen Gilbert (photographs 17-22)
The Gilbert Collection comprises draft autograph and typescript manuscripts of novels and short stories, proof copies and quires, correspondence, notes, synopses, draft speeches, draft poems, juvenilia, school reports, photographs, scrapbooks, and postcards of Stephen Gilbert. The correspondence includes letters written by authors such as a Walter de la Mare, George Buchanan, Forrest Reid and E M Forster.
The Gilbert Collection is strong in terms of draft autograph and typescript manuscripts of novels and short stories, proof copies and quires, correspondence, notes, synopses, draft speeches, draft poems, juvenilia, school reports, photographs, scrapbooks, and postcards. The correspondence includes letters written by authors such as a Walter de la Mare, George Buchanan, Forrest Reid and E M Forster.
The mechanics of, and inspiration behind, the act of creative writing is well demonstrated within the collection. The process of writing is often sharply debated in letters, and creative processes are further illuminated in the heavily revised and densely annotated drafts of works, both published and incomplete. Notebooks and transcriptions evidence the research, memory aids, and layered construction inherent in crafting prose, as notes and jottings are added to skeletal plotlines and chapter headings.
The bonds and tensions between Gilbert, and the author Forrest Reid (MS 44) are also apparent within his personal papers. The two writers were friends, but being separated by almost four decades, it was a relationship of mentor and protégé, and at times, a difficult friendship.
The collection also holds complete drafts of unpublished novels such as ‘The Bloody City’ and ‘Dear Granny and Sweet Child’, also known as ‘Granny Carson’s Sex Fantasy’ .
Collection of paper based materials and photographs. 60+ draft works, 150 items of correspondence, 70 items of juvenilia, 100+ postcards, 40 draft poems, 2 photograph albums and 2 scrapbooks, plus assorted other documentation.
Gilbert Collection listing
See also Kris Brown ‘An Exhibition on Forrest Reid and Stephen Gilbert’. Belfast. QUB. 2008.
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Custodial Information
Queen's University Belfast maintains legal ownership and control of the Collection. Consult with staff on matters of copyright and publication.
Received by Special Collections, Queen’s University Belfast from the Gilbert family. Transferred to Special Collections 2008. The Stephen Gilbert Collection was purchased from the Gilbert family in 2007.
![MS11/23 - Eire. Constitution. Draft. Dublin: Published by the Stationery Office: Printed by Cahill & Co., [1937] Annotated by T.F. O’Rahilly. MS. Inscription by Éamon de Valera Thanking O’Rahilly for his Assistance](/sites/default/files/styles/media_crop/public/2018-04/MS11-23.jpg?itok=P7V_xvTZ)
