Patten - Papers of Brian Patten - 1946-2016
This collection of working and personal papers dates from Patten's childhood to the time immediately before deposit in 2007. It gives much insight into his working practices and includes many manuscript, typescripts and notebooks containing various drafts of his poetry, plays, books for children and...
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| Archive level description: | Fonds |
| Physical Description: | 11 subfonds: 60 boxes; oversize folders. |
| Languages: | English |
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| Summary: | This collection of working and personal papers dates from Patten's childhood to the time immediately before deposit in 2007. It gives much insight into his working practices and includes many manuscript, typescripts and notebooks containing various drafts of his poetry, plays, books for children and work for television and radio. There is a small but significant series of handmade typescript poetry booklets featuring Patten's early poetry, these are precursor's to his later published magazine Underdog. There is an important series of correspondence with letters from literary figures such as Allan Ginsberg, Philip Larkin, John Betjemen and Ted Hughes, amongst many others. Included with the collection is also a series of printed books is this collection for which see the printed book catalogue at SPEC Patten. |
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| Date: | 1946-2016 |
| Reference Number: | Patten |
| Accruals: | Future accruals are expected. |
| Access Conditions: | Patten/10 is closed to access indefinitely. |
| Arrangement: | The archive has been arranged as follows:
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| Finding Aids: | A copy of this finding aid is available for consultation in the reading room. |
| Related Material: | Researchers may also be interested in The Papers of Roger McGough, The Papers of Adrian Henri: Part I and The Papers of Adrian Henri: Part II, also held by Special Collections and Archives. |
| Access Restrictions: | Reproduction and Licensing Rules are available on request. |
| Biographical/Administrative Information: | Brian Patten was born in Liverpool in 1946 and educated at Sefton Park Secondary Modern School. In 1961 he took up a position as a cub reporter for the Bootle Times. He began to attend and perform poetry at various Liverpool venues, during which time he met Roger McGough and Adrian Henri. In 1962 Patten began to publish his poetry magazine Underdog, in which his own, McGough's and Henri's early poetry first appears. In 1963 Patten left his job on the Bootle Times and began to work full time as a writer. He remained in Liverpool during this time though travelled extensively in Europe. In 1967, aged 21 he published his first poetry collection Little Johnny's Confession (Allen & Unwin) and, along with Adrian Henri and Roger McGough, the poetry anthology The Mersey Sound: Penguin Modern Poets 10. In 1969 Patten moved to London and in 1970 published his first book for children The Elephant and the Flower (Allen & Unwin). Amongst his many published works since are the anthologies Love Poems (Allen & Unwin, 1981), Storm Damage (Flamingo, 1995) and Selected Poems (Penguin Books, 2007). He has also written extensively for children and for the stage, television and radio. He has won several awards, including an award from the Mystery Writers of America Guild for Mr Moon's Last Case (1975) and a Cholmondeley Award in 2002 for The Blue and Green Ark: An Alphabet for Planet Earth (1999). In 2001 he was honoured with the Freedom of the City of Liverpool, along with Henri and McGough. He is Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of Liverpool University and John Moores University, Liverpool. Patten lives in Devon and continues to write and perform his poetry. He is writer and presenter of the BBC Radio 4 series Lost Voices. |