Papers of William Fryer Harvey and further papers of John Wilfred Harvey
Details
Type of record: Archive
Title: Papers of William Fryer Harvey and further papers of John Wilfred Harvey
Classmark: MS 1733
Date(s): c.1898-1974
Language: English
Size and medium: 6 boxes (5 for W.F. Harvey, 1 for J.W. Harvey), containing manuscript, typescript and printed material.
Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/6786
Collection group(s): Quaker Collection
Description
Manuscripts, press cuttings, letters, print and associated mainly relating to literary work by William Fryer Harvey. The collection also contains material relating to his brother, John Wilfred Harvey.
The W. F. Harvey material includes a large collection of work from all periods of his life, published and unpublished, including fiction, poetry and drama, often in multiple versions. The greatest quantity of material relates to his shorter mystery and horror stories, but includes drafts of longer works (published and unpublished), writing for children, writing on aspects of Quakerism (including on Quaker medical history, on silent worship, and his unpublished "A Layman's Religion") and some humorous work.
The J. W. Harvey material includes drafts of a range of work, including fiction, poetry and drama, published and unpublished, some of them using the name John Farndale. There are also acrostics celebrating family members or events and a collection of his annual Christmas verses. There are some letters, including correspondence and testimonials relating to J.W. Harvey's applications for academic posts (assembled in 1974), and correspondence relating to attempts to have his plays performed on the radio and to have other writings published posthumously.
The collection is arranged as follows:
1) W. F. Harvey - notes and drafts for longer works (including 'We Were Seven', 'Cumber Priory', 'Myrtle', Miss Evenlode', 'Chandos Mount' etc
2) W. F. Harvey - shorter pieces - series including drafts and press cuttings of published work.
3) W. F. Harvey - Writing on Christianity and Quakerism
4) W.F. Harvey - Notebooks and juvenilia
5) J. W. Harvey - literary drafts and correspondence.
Biography or history
The Harveys were one of the prominent Quaker families in Leeds in the 19th and early 20th centuries. W.F. Harvey and J.W. Harvey were two of the seven children of William and Anna Maria Harvey. W.F. Harvey began work in the adult education movement, then joined the Friends Ambulance Unit at the outbreak of the First World War. However, in 1916 he decided to complete a medical course he had earlier abandoned (when ill-health caused him to leave Oxford University), and on qualification was appointed a naval surgeon. In 1918 his health was permanently affected as the result of breathing in oil fumes while performing an amputation in a flooded boiler-room; for this act he was awarded the Albert Medal. After the war he resumed adult education work, as the warden of Fircroft College, until recurring ill-health forced his retirement in 1925. In his later years he established a considerable reputation as a writer of both mystery and horror stories, and of children's stories, but he also wrote
on Quaker matters and published an account of his childhood, "We Were Seven". J.W. Harvey, who took a First in Greats from Balliol College, Oxford, held the Chair of Philosophy at the University of Leeds from 1932 to 1954, having earlier held the same chair at Newcastle. Outside of academic life he was involved in a large number of humanitarian activities, including support for refugees and furthering international understanding; in this connection he was successively chairman and president of International Voluntary Service.
Provenance
Typescript copy of '"The pied piper of Hamelin": a new ending' by J.W. Harvey a gift per Russell Stanley Mortimer.
Access and usage
Access
Access to this material is unrestricted.
On our website
Collection guide: Quaker Collections
The University of Leeds Special Collections is the main repository for Yorkshire Quaker Archives. Collections include the official records of meeting houses and those of prominent Quaker families.