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My assumption is, that in his previous flat in Kensington, there was limited space for storage. Only when he moved to Herne Hill in 1972 did the concept of an archive seem to take off, and after then he begins collecting and preserving items rather carefully. But remember that his main interest is in American writers - Ginsberg, Burroughs, Olson, McClure and so on.
ERIC MOTTRAM ARCHIVE
King's College London, Hampstead Campus, Kidderpore Ave., London NW3 7ST-
tel. 0171 433 3106
18 Feb 1998
Dear Dr. Wignesan,
Thank you for your letter of 12 Feb 1998.
I am particularly pleased to have a copy of Eric's article on yourself - in English and German (I do not envy the translator) - as this fills in another gap in the Archive. I agree, it makes no sense that Eric's own collection should have lacunae of this sort, but this is proving to be the case. It is possible, as I said, that some material remains as yet unchecked in the 100 or so boxes to be catalogued, but enough has been reviewed to convince me that there are considerable gaps, especially in the early material.
My assumption is, that in his previous flat in Kensington, there was limited space for storage. Only when he moved to Herne Hill in 1972 did the concept of an archive seem to take off, and after then he begins collecting and preserving items rather carefully. But remember that his main interest is in American writers - Ginsberg, Burroughs, Olson, McClure and so on. Of the books involving Eric and yourself, for example, we only certainly have Fire Readings [italicised] and the issues of Comparative Poïetics [italicised]. This does not mean that the others have been abstracted. And they would certainly not have been discarded. But they may well be among the shelved library of books that has passed to the Rare Books section of King's, which is not part of the Archive itself.
Yet there are surprising gaps - no recent diaries - no complete collection of his own articles, especially from pre-1972 - very seldom any copies of his own letters out - rather arbitrary gaps in the correspondence he has preserved. There is no evidence that Eric sorted, edited or even reviewed his collection after 1972; he merely added to it. But all sorts of factors may have influenced a choice not to keep material as it came in: generally there is little or no personal correspondence, for example.
However, I have yet the 'oldest' strata of the Archive - the downstairs and upstairs back storerooms - to complete, so much may yet emerge that will make the picture more complete, and I will certainly keep you informed of any extra Wignesan material that is discovered.
In the meantime I enclose a copy of the bibliography that you request. It is necessarily indebted to your own work, and I hope this is adequately acknowledged. There is quite a lot of new material, also, and the whole has been re-checked as far as possible; but still suspect it is far from complete..
With thanks for your co-operation,
Bill Griffiths
(c) T. Wignesan - Paris, 1998-2023
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In Eric Mottram's case, his property and bank balance - according to my reckoning - ran up to over a million pounds sterling (Purchasing-Power-Parity in 1995), and his heirs: elder brother and sister very generously handed it all over to King's College towards making up the archives. The cash which amounted to some [correct me, if I am wrong, somebody] £650,000 - six hundred and fifty thousand - was devoted to employing the poet Bill Griffiths [who was at EM's departure on the dole] to charting out the preliminary spade work at the Hampstead campus, and when the funds petered out, King's took over the rest of the work. His property included his house at Herne Hill and all the books, journals, files and income on his own writing - which were amassed in half-a-century of toil right across the northern hemisphere.
As for my own case - thanks for the kindness - there is no way anyone will bother about my stuff since my son in Paris is in cohorts with the AUTHORITIES who are out to plunder and destroy all I have put together (and watched over under peril): that's what my son says and the theft (even of my hard-earned diplomas) has begun already over the last couple of decades; so all the more reason to thank you warmly for the thought. The rest of my family spread out over the globe wouldn't lose a night's sleep over my archives, but they might make a play for the cash...though !!!
Many thanks for the wishes. Sincerely as ever. TW
The gaps in Eric's past may certainly be the result of moving.
I have little or nothing from my early years of moving every two years with all I had in the car. It is only when I acquired a library of old books and wrote a number of published articles in various journals that I started to save what I had written and published. But I stored everything from 1980 until 1989. By that time I couldn't handle sorting through it without help. Fortunately, two hired attendants in the summer of 1992 enabled me to go through the whole load I brought from Atlanta and toss out most of it, but keep the articles in plastic binders and put the books on my bookshelf.
I doubt if my work will be wanted by any library or any institution. I hope that my younger brother who will handle my affairs after I die will maintain what I have archived and pass it down through his daughter, so that at least my family will, in the future, be able to read and know what I've written and published. And even, laugh at how naïve and misunderstood I was writing what I thought was serious business.
Ron