James Hanley Collection

Collection

Identifier: RBSC-SPX-011

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection provides extensive documentation of several of Hanley’s typescripts and unpublished works. The manuscripts contain typescripts for plays Hanley wrote for television and radio. The last two sections of the manuscript collection include letters from Hanley to Norman Unger and from Hanley to K. A. Ward. Besides original materials, over 100 published items individually cataloged and listed on the library’s online catalog compliment the manuscripts and are held in the collection.

Dates

created: 1932-1978
Other: Date acquired: 03/21/2014

Biographical or Historical Information

James Hanley grew up in Liverpool shortly after his birth in Dublin in 1901. Often described as a working class novelist, many of his novels were inspired by experiences in his life. For example, Hanley wanted to participate in World War I so he joined the Black Watch Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force at age 13, eventually participated in the war, and worked aboard ships for several years. Many of his novels are fictionalized accounts of life on the seas as well as World War I. He began publishing while still in Liverpool and struck up a friendship with the author John Cowper Powrys. He later moved to North Wales with his new wife and then to London with his family during World War II and experienced the blitzkrieg first hand. As in his early life on the sea, Hanley incorporated his war experiences into his novels. The Hanleys moved back to Wales following the Second World War and continued writing. Later, he wrote the novel A House in the Valley under the pseudonym Patric Shone. Following a second move to London, Hanley concentrated on television and radio and finished several more novels before his death in 1985.

Note written by