| Abstract: Letters of Nevill Coghill to Graham Binns, 1948-80. |
Nevill Coghill, fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, 1925; renowned for his productions of plays at Oxford; Merton Professor of English Literature, 1957-66; translated Chaucer and Langland for BBC radio, and later published his translations. For further details, see Dictionary of National Biography.
Graham Binns was an undergraduate at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. In 1949 he and Coghill co-produced The Tempest in Worcester College gardens. He worked in the arts and the media, including the Arts Council, early 1950s, Radio & TV Malta, and Radio Jamaica, late 1950s-1970, founder, and director, of Capital Radio, 1974-82. See Corpus Christi College Oxford, Biographical Register 1880-1974, compiled by P.A. Hunt, ed. N.A. Flanagan (Oxford, 1988), pp. 424-5.
The letters (mainly holograph, some typescript) contain much information about literature and drama, Oxford university and college life, and personal matters. They include several sketches and caricatures by Coghill.
For further details, see Bodleian Library Record, XVII, no. 3 (Apr. 2004), 283-8.
Oxford, Bodleian Library [followed by shelfmark and folio or page reference, e.g. MS. Eng. c. 7125, fols. 1-2].
Three small photographs of Binns's wife, Jillian, née Palmer, (enclosed with a letter of 1953, MS. Eng. c. 7126, fols. 80-4) are MS. Photogr. c. 185, fols. 35-7, and a photograph of a portrait bust of Coghill (enclosed with a letter of 1971, MS. Eng. c. 7128, fol. 88) is MS. Photogr. c. 185, fol. 38.
A few letters from Binns to Coghill, 1948, 1973-4 (MSS. Eng. lett. c. 798, fols. 85, 92; c. 803, fols. 112 -71 passim) are in Coghill's papers in the Bodleian, MSS. Eng. lett. c. 798-809; Eng. misc. a 32, b. 442, c. 1013-22, d. 1435, d. 1437-8; Photogr. c. 8-10, g. 5. A play by Binns, 'Lady of Vergi', is in the Library of Corpus Christi College (CCC Office: Pamphlet), and the production-book for the play (programme, press-notices, photographs and producer's notes) is CCCO Archives E/50/1 - an appointment should be made by any researcher wishing to consult the material at Corpus http://www.ccc.ox.ac.uk/library/libadmns.htm.
| Letters from Coghill to Binns,
1948-54 Shelfmark: MS. Eng. c. 7125 Extent: 288 leaves Scope and Content: With (fol. 2) a letter from Coghill to Binns's mother, about Binns, 1944. |
| Letters from Coghill to Binns,
1955-9 Shelfmark: MS. Eng. c. 7126 Extent: 292 leaves |
| Letters from Coghill to Binns,
1960-8 Shelfmark: MS. Eng. c. 7127 Extent: 275 leaves |
| Letters from Coghill to Binns,
1969-80, n.d. Shelfmark: MS. Eng. c. 7128 Extent: 214 leaves Scope and Content: With (fol. 118) a letter from Elizabeth [Taylor?] to Coghill, 1972. Related Material:A draft or copy of a letter from Coghill to Binns, 21 July 1973 (not present in the above correspondence), is in the Coghill papers, MS. Eng. lett. c. 803, fol. 125. |