MS 443 01 01

MS 443 01 01

Noel Blakiston papers: Correspondence relating to Cyril Connolly

Sub-series

Noel Blakiston, author and archivist. He was a King's Scholar at Eton, where he met Cyril Connolly (1903-1974), author and literary reviewer. Their friendship flourished in the 1920s and continued throughout their lives. In 1975, Blakiston published A Romantic Friendship: the Letters of Cyril Connolly to Noel Blakiston.

1922-1976

4.5 boxes

Correspondence Relating to Cyril Connolly consists primarily of letters from Cyril Connolloy to Noel Blakiston, a very few letters from Noel to Cyril, accompanied by related letters from others to Noel and to Cyril. Most of the letters are dated 1924-1930; Cyril's letters to Noel continue until Cyril's death, with a gap from 1935 to 1944. There are just under 300 letters, postcards and telegrams from Cyril Connolly to Noel Blakiston dated 1922-1973, the bulk of these letters dated 1924-1927. Most but not all of these were published in A Romantic Friendship: the letters of Cyril Connolly to Noel Blakiston in 1975. One letter dated 27 June 1926 is accompanied by a letter from Francis Fortescue Urquhart to Blakiston. There are two letters, one fragment and one postcard from Noel Blakiston to Cyril Connolly: the postcard, dated 1927, is also signed by Noel's wife Georgiana, Bernard Berenson and his wife Mary; one letter describes Noel and Giana's travels in Spain during their honeymoon; the other letter is dated December 1962; the fragment is undated. Eighteen letters and postcards from Balliol Dean Francis Fortescue Urquhart ('Sligger') to Noel Blakiston are dated 1924-1934, and contain references to Cyril, Urquhart's travels and Urquhart's chalet in the Alps. These letters are accompanied by 45 letters to Cyril from Noel's brother J. M. G. Blakiston ('Jack'), dated 1925-1940, n.d. Jack discusses his travels and those of Cyril's, his career after Cambridge, and his thoughts on writing, literature and Noel. A letter dated 2 May [n.y.] from Michael Sokolov to Jack Blakiston is present as well. These are accompanied by a letter and a postcard from Georgiana Blakiston to Cyril Connolly, and single letters to Cyril Connolly from F. M. Blakiston, the father of Noel and Jack. A letter to Noel from Jean Bakewell before her marriage to Cyril is dated 20 May 1929.

A calendared list of Cyril Connolly's letters to Noel Blakiston is available on Eton College Library's online Autograph Catalogue.

Cyril Connolly's letters published as: Connolly, Cyril. A romantic friendship: the letters of Cyril Connolly to Noel Blakiston. London: Constable, 1975.