Hodgson Collection To Eaton

Jane and Howard Frank have donated their collection of William Hope Hodgson papers, including unpublished stories, to the UC Riverside Libraries’ Eaton Collection. The gift will be commemorated at an event on April 16.

Born Nov. 15, 1877, in Blackmore End, Essex, Hodgson was widely known for his works in horror, fantastic fiction and science fiction when he was killed in April 1918, during World War I. He wrote numerous short stories, novels and poems, including “The House on the Borderland” and “The Night Land.”

“Scholars have lamented for decades that no collection of primary materials – correspondence, diaries, etc. – had ever come to light to allow for the depth of scholarly research that has been done for his contemporaries such as H.P. Lovecraft,” said University Librarian Steven Mandeville-Gamble. “The Hodgson collection, which was so generously donated to UCR by Jane and Howard Frank, finally brings to light those critically important resources that academics have been seeking for years.”

There will be lectures and a reception at the library on the 16th. Jane Frank will participate, speaking about their acquisition of the collection, and how that led to the two books she edited on Hodgson, for PS Publishing/Tartarus Press, 2005, The Wandering Soul: Glimpses of a Life – A Compendium of Rare and Unpublished Works, and The Lost Poetry Books of W.H. Hodgson.

The archive of Hodgson manuscripts, letters and photographs was once owned by the late Sam Moskowitz.

Jane Frank believes the collection will shortly be available to scholars and researchers and hopes that the donation will spark new studies of Hodgson’s stories and poetry.

[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the story.]