Manuscripts, 1899 - 1917

The series consists of correspondence to and from Lovat Fraser and Grace Crawford Lovat Fraser, with letters to and from other family members, friends and business colleagues. Fraser's juvenile correspondence to and from his parents and his brother, Alan (approx. 200 pieces, c.1899-1907), contains many early sketches and gives a vivid picture of his life in boarding school. His mature correspondence with family members (approx. 250 letters), include his descriptive and often poignant letters home from the Front. Many of these are illustrated as well.

Letters to Fraser and/or Crawford, including letters to Crawford after Fraser's death, include correspondence from members of the English literary, music and theatrical community of the first half of the twentieth century. Some of the correspondents are:

Arnold Bennett (1867-1931) Enid Bagnold (1889-1981) Sir Max Beerbohm (1872-1956) Baron Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt Wilson Berners (1883-1950) Desmond Coke (1879-1931) Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966) Harold Curwen (1885-1949) Walter De La Mare (1873-1956) William Frend De Morgan (1839-1917) John Drinkwater (1882-1937) Eleanor Farjeon (1881-1965) Sir Eugene Goossens (1893-1962) Robert Graves (1895-1985) Martin Hardie (1875-1952) Kenneth Hare (1888-1962) Sir Ambrose Heal(1872-1959) Ralph Hodgson (1871-1962) Sir Barry Vincent Jackson (1879-1961) Holbrook Jackson (1874-1948)Tamara Karsavina (1885-1978) Edward Verrall Lucas (1868-1938) C. Haldane Macfall (1860-1928) Sir Francis Meynell (1891-1975 Harold Monro (1879-1932) John Middleton Murry (1889-1957) Paul Nash (1889-1946) C.R.W. Nevinson (1889-1946) Sir John Henry Newbolt (1862-1938) Sir Nigel Playfair (1874-1934) James Prude (1866-1941) Alfred William Rich (1856-1941) Sir William Rothenstein (1872-1945) George William Russell (1867-1935) Albert Rutherston (1881-1953) James Stephens (1882-1950) Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree (1853-1917) Sir Hugh Walpole (1884-1941) Jack Butler Yeats (1871-1957)

The collection also contains 13 of Fraser's diaries written from 1906 to August 1914 and August 1917 to 1919. The gap between 1914 and 1917-Fraser's WWI period-is covered in his correspondence, particularly with his parents.

The collection holds a variety of other manuscript materials, such as Fraser's essays, poetry, drafts of his letters, Fraser's platoon roll book and discharge paper, Fraser's studio visitors book, Crawford-Fraser wedding announcements, clippings about Fraser from newspapers and periodicals, including notices of his exhibitions and stage productions, clippings about Crawford (scrapbook and loose), unpublished manuscripts by Crawford, a poem by Sinclair Lewis, a poem by Ezra Pound, an autograph manuscript score of Arthur Bliss's Rout, and an autograph first draft of James Stephens' The Story of Tuan MacCairill.