Poetry manuscripts of various dates, and aerogrammes to Derek Hirst

Approximately 200 poetry manuscripts of varying dates and formats, written in Blunden's calligraphic hand on the versos of college announcements, together with exam papers, auction catalogues, posters, 19th century ledgers, received correspondence and compliments slips, etc. The materials appear to have been assembled and organized by Blunden, perhaps the early 1950s, as an archival record of his published and unpublished verse, from 1916 to the late 1940s. Some MSS are fair copies, others are marked up for printing and many are extensively reworked, including examples of his most celebrated early war poems, such as 'Trees on the Calais Road' (1917), or ‘Thiepval Wood’ (1916). Blunden gave the collection to his friend and tenant of his Tonbridge house, Derek Hirst, to whom the 22 aerogrammes were written while he was teaching at Hong Kong University, 1953-55.