Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- [1938]-[1968] (Creation)
Level of description
Series
Extent and medium
1 vol.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Anna Kavan (1901-1968) was a writer of short stories, essays and novels and a literary critic; she was also a painter and an interior designer.
She was born Helen Emily Woods in Cannes on 10 April 1901 of English parents and spent her childhood in Europe, California and England, and took the name of Anna Kavan, her own fictional alter ego about 1940. She began writing while living with her first husband Donald Ferguson in Burma. Her literary works have been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Danish and Japanese. Rhys Davies 'who knew her longer and possibly better than anyone', according to her biographer D. A. Callard, was asked to write her biography by her literary agent David Higham. He refused saying that even after thirty years of friendship he did not know enough. Rhys Davies wrote introductions to her books which were published posthumously and his last published novel, Honeysuckle girl (London, 1975) examines the breakdown of her marriage with Stuart Edmonson. Raymond Marriott and Rhys Davies became her literary executors and equally inherited her estate after her death in December 1968.
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
The series comprises a rough draft of a work of fiction, [1938]-[1968] by Anna Kavan entitled 'Some living or dreaming or s[i]tt[i]ng'.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Arranged into one file: Anna Kavan: fiction.
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
Preferred citation: D1