Collection inventory

Overview of the Collection
Creator:	Gibbs, Philip, 1877-1962.
Title:	Philip Gibbs Letters
Inclusive Dates:	1900-1928
Quantity:	51 items (SC)
Abstract:	Papers of the British journalist, novelist, lecturer. Outgoing correspondence, mostly of a business nature.
Language:	English
Repository:	Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries 222 Waverly Avenue Syracuse, NY 13244-2010 https://library.syracuse.edu/special-collections-research-center

Biographical History

Philip Gibbs (1877-1962) was a British journalist, novelist, and lecturer.

Sir Philip Hamilton Gibbs was born in 1877 in London, England to Helen Hamilton and Henry Gibbs. He is best remembered for his work as a war correspondent during the First World War. At the outset of war, Gibbs travelled to France to report for the Daily Chronicle. Gibbs was chosen as one of the five accredited correspondents for Allied Forces during the war. As a result of his contributions, he was made a Knight of the Order of the British Empire in 1920. He died in March 1962.

Selected Works
	1900	The Street of Adventure
	1914	Beauty and Nick, a Novel of the Stage and the Home--the Artistic Temperament in Fateful Action
	1915	The Soul of the War
	1920	Back to Life
		Now It Can Be Told
		Realities of War
	1923	Adventures in Journalism
		The Middle of the Road; a Novel
	1926	Young Anarchy
	1930	Since Then; the Disturbing Story of the World at Peace
	1934	European Journey
	1935	England Speaks
	1937	Ordeal in England (England Speaks Again)
	1938	Across the Frontiers
	1939	Broken Pledges
		This Nettle, Danger
	1941	Sons of the Others, a Novel

Return to top

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Philip Gibbs Letters are a collection of 51 outgoing items written between 1900 and 1928 by the British journalist, novelist and lecturer. With the exception of a group of twelve personal letters written in 1901 to Mrs. Suverkrop and a single item to Christie Murray (10 Nov 1925), most of the correspondence is of a business nature. The letters include suggestions and discussions about Gibbs's work with his literary agent Curtis Brown and his assistant, Miss Easterbrook. Included among the letters are arrangements to have Gibbs's manuscripts typed and distributed, discussions concerning financial and legal commitments, suggestions for serialization of Gibbs's novel, Back to Life, and placement of various of Gibbs's work in Harper's Magazine, Ladies' Home Journal, and McClure's Magazine. Also included in the collection are a series of four letters written between 1916 and 1928 to American lecture agent James B. Pond, who offered to represent Gibbs in arranging a lecture tour of the United States. Responding to one of these proposals, Gibbs writes (23 May 1928):

...nothing except extreme destitution would persuade me to give another lecture tour! I found it killing work and I am a rotten lecturer.

As a journalist who established his reputation during World War I, Gibbs was often approached concerning possible topics for books about war-time experiences. After considering the possibility of writing about the Scottish contribution to the war effort, Gibbs writes to Curtis Brown (21 May 1919):

The truth is, that apart altogether from time, when I sat down to write about the heroic deeds of the Scots I felt that in a psychological way I simply could not do it. The only thing I want to write now about the war is absolute realism, giving the plain unvarnished truth of its misery and abomination, as well as its heroism. A romantic narrative of the Scots in action, such as would be necessary for a school book, would not only be very false in its picture, but would, I know, damage my reputation in the larger sense. It would be nothing but a pot-boiler at its best, and I think the time has come when I ought to give up writing pot-boilers.

Return to top

Arrangement of the Collection

The collection contains one series, Correspondence, which is arranged alphabetically by recipient.

Return to top

Restrictions

Access Restrictions

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Use Restrictions

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

Return to top

Subject Headings

Persons

Subjects

Genres and Forms

Occupations

Return to top

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Philip Gibbs Letters
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Finding Aid Information

Created by: KM
Date: Feb 1989
Revision history: 05 Nov 2008 - converted to EAD (LDC); 19 Oct 2018 - folders for 1919 combined (MRC)

Return to top

Inventory

	Correspondence
SC 72		Mrs. Suverkrop 1901 (12 letters)
SC 72		[General] 1900-1916 (3 letters)
SC 72		[General] 1919 - Written to Mrs. Suverkrop; 2 by Anges Gibbs (22 letters)
SC 72		[General] 1920 (10 letters)
SC 72		[General] 1922-1928 (4 letters)

Return to top