Manuscript & Object Collect... Small collections of manusc... Post-1650 Manuscripts Elsie and the Child Finding AidBy RBML Staff and Meg Hixon
Title: Elsie and the Child, 1924
ID: 01/02/02/POST-1650 MS 0005
Primary Creator: Bennett, Arnold (1867-1931)
Extent: 1.0 Items
Date Acquired: 10/21/1955
Subjects: English literature - 20th century
Languages: English
This volume (108 pages) contains a manuscript draft of Arnold Bennett's novel Elsie and the Child, written between January 15 and February 14, 1924. The manuscript includes corrections in the author's hand. The title page includes an embellished version of the title, a monogram of Arnold Bennett's initials, and the author's address (75 Cadogan Square, SW 1, London). An inscription at the end of the text indicates that Bennett presented the manuscript to Dorothy Cheston on December 18, 1928.
The volume has the bookplate of H. Harvey Frost.
Enoch Arnold Bennett (1867-1931) left school as a teenager and moved from his Staffordshire home to London in his early twenties. After first working as a legal clerk, he soon pursued a literary career. Though he is best known for his novels, Bennett edited the weekly periodical Woman from 1893 to 1900 and also published reviews and other nonfiction works. He later lived in Bedfordshire (1900-1902), Paris (1902-1912), and Essex (1912-1921), and assisted with English propaganda efforts during the latter stages of World War I. Bennett and his first wife, Marie Marguerite Soulie, married in 1907 but separated in 1921; following their separation, Bennett returned to London to live with actress Dorothy Cheston (1891-1977). Bennett and Cheston had one daughter, Virginia (b. 1926). Bennett's novel Elsie and the Child was published in 1924.
Source
Lucas, John. "Bennett, (Enoch) Arnold (1867-1931)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online edition. Oxford University Press: 2010. doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/30708
Repository: Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Access Restrictions: The collection is open for research.
Use Restrictions:
This item is the physical property of the Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Intellectual property rights, including copyright, may reside with the materials' creator(s) or their heirs.
The library welcomes requests for reproductions made from works in our collections, though restrictions may apply to certain materials. Please contact the library with any questions.
Acquisition Source: Day
Related Materials: The Rare Book & Manuscript Library has manuscript copies of The Roll-Call and The Vanguard, also by Arnold Bennett.
Finding Aid Revision History: Revised by Meg Hixon, June 2016
