{"id":961,"date":"2017-11-23T17:50:16","date_gmt":"2017-11-23T17:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/specialcollections\/?p=961"},"modified":"2017-11-23T17:50:16","modified_gmt":"2017-11-23T17:50:16","slug":"visit-to-the-john-masefield-society-archive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/2017\/11\/23\/visit-to-the-john-masefield-society-archive\/","title":{"rendered":"Visit to the John Masefield Society Archive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week I visited the John Masefield Society Archive in Ledbury. It is always nice to get out from behind\u00a0the desk, and having been a fan of Masefield’s The Midnight Folk <\/em>and The Box of Delights<\/em> since childhood I found myself driving to Ledbury with some excitement.<\/p>\n

\"Masefield
The Master’s House – Ledbury<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The John Masefield Society Archive is based at the wonderful Master’s House.\u00a0The building\u00a0was originally a fifteenth century mansion, and has been lovingly converted into Ledbury’s public library (and incidentally is the nicest public library I’ve ever visited). I was warmly greeted by Bob Vaughan, who spent the next two hours showing me the collection and giving me a fantastic overview of Masefield’s life and works.<\/p>\n

\"Masefield
Letters from John Masefield to Eileen Colwell in the John Masefield Archive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Masefield was born\u00a0in Ledbury in\u00a01878 to a middle-class family. After being orphaned at a young age he attended King’s School in Warwick before being sent to join HMS Conway as a young mariner. The influence of the sea can be found throughout his work, in poems such as his Salt-Water Ballads<\/em> (1902)\u00a0<\/em>to pirate rats in The Box of Delights <\/em>(1935). His maritime career ended abruptly after he discovered he suffered from seasickness, and Masefield abandoned his\u00a0occupation on arrival in New York in 1895. He then lived as a vagrant in New York State, working in bars and even a carpet factory, which he describes in detail in his autobiography In The Mill <\/em>(1941). Masefield returned to England in 1897, after deciding to become a writer. He initially found employment as a bank clerk in London, but went on to form an enduring friendship with W. B. Yeats and published his first volume of poetry (Salt-Water Ballads<\/em>) in 1902. Masefield continued to publish both poetry and prose alongside writing for the Manchester Guardian<\/em>. His publication of The Everlasting Mercy <\/em>(1911) became an instant hit.<\/p>\n

\"Masefield
Walking sticks belonging to Masefield and his daughter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Masefield went on to complete war work in a British Red Cross hospital on the Western Front during the First World War, then took charge of\u00a0a motorboat ambulance service (despite the seasickness). He\u00a0completed a lecture tour of\u00a0the United States, and in 1930 became the 16th Poet Laureate after a nomination from Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald. He continued to write, including subjects from children’s novels to social issues. Masefield died in 1967, aged 88.<\/p>\n

The Archive is a fantastic resource, incorporating just about all of Masefield’s published works along with original letters, photographs and objects. As archives have a way of doing, I’m inspired to find out more about the man, his works and life, and I can think of no better place to start than this collection. We also hold a selection of Masefield’s publications in our Gloucestershire Poets, Writers and Artists Collection at the University of Gloucestershire (being a contemporary of the Dymock Poets and from just over the border in Herefordshire), and a set of John Masefield Society Journals. Get in touch if you’d like to find out more.<\/p>\n

\"Masefield
Laurel wreath worn by Masefield<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week I visited the John Masefield Society Archive in Ledbury. It is always nice to get out from behind\u00a0the desk, and having been a fan of Masefield’s The Midnight […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gloucestershire-poets-writers-and-artists"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}