Manuscripts: The bulk and the strength of the Collection consist of drafts of novels, short stories, poems, essays and television and radio scripts by Kingsley Amis, many heavily corrected. Also included are individual manuscript pieces by Martin Amis, Sir John Betjeman, Elizabeth Jane Howard, and George Melly. Manuscripts by Amis of particular interest include:

Difficulties with Girls: unfinished novel (not the novel of the same title published in 1988): notes, corrected draft, additional draft pages, summary of unwritten ending, and statement of reasons for not publishing the novel. AMS 19-22.

Notebook: contains random notes for characters, dialogue, etc., ca.1969-1981. AMS 76.

Poems: the earliest literary manuscripts in the collection, 1941-1944. AMS 95.

Who Else Is Rank: early, unpublished novel co-written with E. Frank Coles, 1944-1945. AMS 180-181. Also 3 letters from Amis to Coles discussing the novel, AMS 185-187.

Kingsley Amis was born in London on April 16, 1922, the son of William Robert and Rosa Annie (Lucas) Amis. Following service in the British Army from 1942 to 1945 and first-class honors in English at St. John's College, Oxford, Amis was a lecturer in English at University College of Swansea, Wales, from 1949 to 1961. He subsequently became a Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge University, 1961-1963, and held visiting professorships at Princeton and Vanderbilt Universities.

Literary Copyright The literary copyright is owned by: Martin Amis, 54a Leamington Road Villas, London W11 1HT, and Jonathan Clowes, Iron Bridge, House Bridge Approach, London NW1 8BD.

Access Collection is open to qualified researches by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information please go to following URL. There are no restrictions on access. The manuscripts of and relating to the unfinished novel, Difficulties with Girls (AMS 19-22; not the novel of the same title published in 1988), was restricted until Amis' death; this restriction was lifted following Amis' death in October, 1995. The Philip Larkin letters also were restricted and have been opened after Amis' death.