Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1948-1983 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
Series contains 6 files of textual material.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Rosemary Joy Manning was born in Weymouth, Dorset, 9 December 1911. She attended boarding school in Devon and later studied at the Royal Holloway College from 1930 to 1933, graduating with a 2nd class honours degree in Classics.
Manning first worked in a department store on Oxford street and then as a secretary. Unhappy with her work she suffered a nervous breakdown and was treated at the Maudsley Hospital, following this Manning was offered a teaching job by her former headmistress where she stayed as a teacher for a further 35 years and in 1950 she moved to Hampstead, London to take over a long-established girls’ preparatory school as headmistress.
In 1957 Manning released Green Smoke, her first in the series of Dragon children’s books she would become well known for. In 1962 she released The Chinese Garden, following a failed suicide attempt. The book was later known as her greatest novel and an important piece of lesbian literature. After retiring, she publicly came out as a lesbian in a televised interview in 1980. She died on the 5th April 1988.
Repository
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Series contains published and unpublished writing including works, typed speeches, articles and written projects Manning wrote throughout her life that sometimes reflected her sexuality, feminism, coming out and lgbt rights.
This includes The Fox, The Garlands of Friendship, At the House of a Friend, The Habits of Secrecy, Alone in the House, The End of the Game, The Evening Class, Work in Progress, The Souvenir, The Keys of Heaven and over the plain. Several of the works appear in magazines.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Arranged into seven series, and subsequent sub-series, by type of material.
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Open
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Alternative identifier(s)
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
ISAD(G): General International Standard Archival Description, International Council on Archives (2nd edition, 2000).
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
Created by Mae Moss, 22nd September 2021.
Language(s)
- English