Barker, Dudley (1910–1980). Literary archive, comprising one file of notes and correspondence on John Galsworthy and 46 manuscripts, 1935-1980. The manuscripts are chiefly on foolscap and A4-sized paper. Most are bound by the author in plain card covers. The manuscripts include both fair copies, relatively clean carbons, and typed drafts, many heavily annotated. Materials are generally in very good condition. About 6 linear feet.

A comprehensive archive of the literary manuscripts of Dudley Barker, a versatile writer whose works include literary biographies, mainstream novels, military histories, social analyses, radio plays, and a string of highly regarded mysteries published under the pseudonym Lionel Black.

Educated at Bournemouth and Oxford, Barker worked as a journalist for the first twenty years of his career. Between 1933 and 1940 he was a reporter first for the Evening Standard then the Daily Herald, and John Bull. During the war he served with the Royal Air Force, rising to the rank of wing commander. Once demobilized, he returned to journalism, working as an editor for Daily Herald and John Bull. In 1960 he attempted a career change, joining the Curtis Brown literary agency, but after five years he left the firm to write full time.

The present archive includes all the surviving manuscripts Barker wrote across his long and diverse career. (Some of his effects reportedly were lost due to poor storage conditions.) It includes his first book and the last published during his lifetime, and over 40 other works, including almost all of his mysteries. Several are typed on the stationery of T. J. Barker & Co., Timber Agents & Brokers, London.

Barker’s first beat as a London journalist was as a legal reporter, and this provided the material for his first manuscript, Laughter in court, which would see print in 1935. Also in the archive are several histories of the RAF, one of which appears to be unpublished. There is the manuscript of his highly regarded biography of John Galsworthy (1867–1933), along with his research notes and correspondence including a lengthy and significant exchange with Galsworthy’s nephew and literary executor, Rudolf Sauter (1895–1977). There is his BBC radio play Obedience test, which was long counted among the lost – no recording nor any other copy of the script survives. There is a handbook for aspiring journalists, and his book-length portrait of the Cypriot paramilitary leader Georgios Grivas (1897–1974). And there are the manuscripts for his first fictions – a series of literary novels he published in the late 1950s.

Most exciting for the mystery aficionado, there are the manuscripts for 14 of the 16 mysteries he published under the pseudonyms Lionel Black and Anthony Matthews, wanting only Swinging murder and the posthumously published The Rumanian circle. Include are his first foray into the genre, A provincial crime (1960) as well as his thrillers featuring the strong female protagonists for which he was known, including the South African spy Emma Greaves and the reporter Kate Theobold, who with her barrister husband form a charming team in the tradition of conjugal sleuths established by such writers as Dorothy Sayers, Frances Lockridge, Ngaio Marsh, and Elizabeth Daly. Also here are his stand-alone mysteries including Arafat is next! (1974), centering on a plot to assassinate the leader of the PLO. This novel, incidentally, was not published in the UK. Finally, there are several manuscripts for works that we have not been able to identify elsewhere. They may represent books that were retitled for publication, or perhaps they never saw print.

Because Barker’s work ranged over so many genres, his archive should attract the attention of scholars across a variety of fields.

Selected References

“Barker, Dudley (1910 – 1980)” in Daniel Jones, ed., Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series. Vol. 58. (Detroit: Gale Research, 1997), pp. 25-27.

Holmes, Daryl Y. “Lionel Black (25 March 1910–1980).” in Gina MacDonald, ed., British Mystery and Thriller Writers Since 1960. Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 276 (Detroit: Gale, 2003), pp. 35-42.