Scope and Contents
Papers, 1937-2000, bulk 1950-1970, of Jack Morpurgo, writer, educator, and editor. Includes correspondence, speeches, lectures, radio scripts, published and unpublished essays, articles, and novels, books from his personal library, certificates and awards, photographs, and framed prints.
Most of the collection consists of Morpurgo's personal writings and business correspondence related to his work as a professor, editor, and director of the National Book League. Morpurgo was a British citizen and graduate of Christ's Hospital school. During his career, he wrote extensively on the subject of Christ's Hospital school. The school was founded in 1552 as a charity to benefit needy children with shelter, food, clothing, and an education. By the eighteenth century, Christ's Hospital was known as one of England's great public schools. It continues to educate British children in the twenty-first century. The papers include correspondence with Edmund Blunden, Virginia Hamilton Adair, Charles Forte, and Russel B. Nye.
Addition 2008.252 contains a typed carbon manuscript for book entitled, "Apprenticeship in Colonial Virginia" by Jack E. Morpurgo, probably written after 1939.
Series 2, Their Majesties Royall Colledge Material, Acc. 1980.126: Five boxes of notes and drafts about Morpurgo's book "Their Majesties' Royall Colledge", correspondence with the Society of the Alumni, and a broadcast script of a Backdrop Club presentation from 1938. The inventory for this accession can be found below in the Box List section of this finding aid.
Conditions Governing Access:
Collection is open to all researchers. Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, such as the Virginia Public Records Act (Code of Virginia. § 42.1-76-91); and the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (Code of Virginia § 2.2-3705.5). Confidential material may include, but is not limited to, educational, medical, and personnel records. If sensitive material is found in this collection, please contact a staff member immediately. The disclosure of personally identifiable information pertaining to a living individual may have legal consequences for which the College of William and Mary assumes no responsibility.
Conditions Governing Use:
Before reproducing or quoting from any materials, in whole or in part, permission must be obtained from the Special Collections Research Center, and the holder of the copyright, if not Swem Library.