socialmedian: Siegfried Sassoon archive likely to stay in UK after £550,000 award

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Siegfried Sassoon archive likely to stay in UK after £550,000 award

Source: The Guardian

Nov 04, 2009

Summary

• Siegfried Sassoon papers attracted interest from US
• Cambridge library still short of asking price

A threat that a rich personal archive of Siegfried Sassoon's journals, poems and letters would be broken up or sold to the US appears to have been lifted, it will be announced today.

The National Heritage Memorial Fund will say it is awarding £550,000 to Cambridge University's campaign to buy the war poet's literary archive. That means the university is just £110,000 short of the £1.25m needed to secure it from the Sassoon estate.

The news, due to be announced at the House of Commons today, has been welcomed by prominent figures involved in the Sassoon campaign, including his official biographer, Max Egremont, who called the archive "extraordinary".

"The response to the appeal has been heartening in these difficult times and shows Sassoon's popularity and importance as a writer," he said.

"It is particularly appropriate that they will be in Cambridge, his old university and a place that he loved."

Andrew Motion, a former poet laureate also involved in the campaign,

...Read the full article

Comments (1)

Mapphappy,

Nov 07, 2009

CHALLENGE

The Sassoon estate is ludicrously greedy and puffed up demanding such a sum - one and a quarter million quid demanded by rich hoarders to release our heritage (a lot of it out of copyright time anyways) to the university for the benefit of the whole !!

Even half a million value on interesting writing that has already been in the public domain by virtue of people having paid to read it in public newspapers. .... is already extortionate and rapacious.

I am only surprised that Siegfried allows it. Someone who can write a big NO to going back to the trenches and get away with it unpunished (quite a good writer then) can stand by and watch his venal money grubbing family estate do their thing.

What a swiz!! Wake up Siegfried and put the heritage's half a million's worth in project Gutenberg and let the guys you employ get on with twisting their whiskers and rubbing their hands in glee... shame to spoil their fun.

This was supposed to turn up as good news and I find it pretty loathesome. Sorry folks must do something about Mapphappy rss feeds - or tighten up the keywords.

Jackie Mackay