MS 433 07

MS 433 07

Wilfred P. Thesiger's literary papers: Published works

Series

1939-1996

21 boxes

Thesiger was a self-taught travel writer and his various manuscripts, typescripts and proofs show his working methods and his development as a writer. The collection includes selected corrected autograph manuscripts and typescripts for most of his major works. The files do not contain every draft of his published works and it is unclear how many drafts were destroyed. Notably absent are drafts of ‘The Marsh Arabs’, ‘Among the Mountains’, ‘Crossing the Sands’, ‘A Vanished World’ and ‘My Life My Travels’. Thesiger did not keep drafts of his articles.

Despite having written about his travels in a number of articles, he had not considered publishing a book based on his experiences until 1956 when he was approached by Graham Watson, a literary agent from Curtis Brown, and Mark Longman, the publisher, about writing what would become ‘Arabian Sands’. A great deal of time often passed between the journey and the published book and Thesiger would use his photographs, diaries and letters to his mother as a reminder.

Thesiger preferred to handwrite his books, and then giving them to a typist to produce a typescript for him to correct. As a result the files often contain a mix of manuscripts and typescripts as he would write the first draft of a new chapter as he was still correcting earlier ones.

As his eyesight deteriorated in later years he would write his last books by dictation and therefore the drafts only exist in typescript form.