Scope and Contents
Correspondence, writings, printed material, artwork, and other related papers
Dates
- 1920s-2010
Creator
- Tennant, Stephen (Author)
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
The Stephen Tennant Papers is the physical property of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the appropriate curator.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
15 August 2011 Acquisition: Purchased from Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, Inc. on the James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection Fund, 2011.
18 August 2011 Acquisition: Purchased from Maggs Brothers Ltd. on the James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection Fund, 2011.
1 August 2011 Acquisition: Purchased from Peter Harrington on the James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection Fund, 2011.
Arrangement
Organized into three groupings: 15 August 2011 Acquisition, 18 August 2011 Acquisition, and 1 August 2011 Acquisition.
Extent
7.62 Linear Feet (14 boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Catalog Record
A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog
Persistent URL
Stephen Tennant
Stephen Tennant (1906 - 1987) was a British socialite and writer known as one of the “Bright Young People,” a group of upper-class British artists, writers, and bon vivants during the 1920s. Tennant’s friends and peers included Cecil Beaton and Rex Whistler and he had a brief, passionate affair with the poet Siegfried Sassoon. He befriended his favorite author, Willa Cather, and became a travelling companion to her partner, Edith Lewis, and he enjoyed close friendships with Daphne Du Maurier, Stephen Spender, Vita Sackville-West, and Elizabeth Bowen. Later in life Tennant withdrew from society, confining himself to his country estate for decades, producing sheaves of handwritten pages for a unfinished novel, “Lascar.”
Processing Information
Collections are processed to a variety of levels, depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived research value, the availability of staff, competing priorities, and whether or not further accruals are expected. The library attempts to provide a basic level of preservation and access for all collections as they are acquired, and does more extensive processing of higher priority collections as time and resources permit.
This collection received a basic level of processing, including rehousing and minimal organization. Various acquisitions associated with the collection have not been merged and organized as a whole. Each acquisition is described separately in the contents list below and titled according to month and year of acquisition.
Information included in the Description of Papers note and Collection Contents section is drawn from information supplied with the collection and from an initial survey of the contents. Folder titles appearing in the contents list below are often based on those provided by the creator or previous custodian. Titles have not been verified against the contents of the folders in all cases. Otherwise, folder titles are supplied by staff during initial processing.
This finding aid may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.
- Title
- Guide to the Stephen Tennant Papers
- Author
- by Beinecke Staff
- Date
- January 2019
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Part of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Repository
Location
121 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06511
Opening Hours
Access Information
The Beinecke Library is open to all Yale University students and faculty, and visiting researchers whose work requires use of its special collections. You will need to bring appropriate photo ID the first time you register. Beinecke is a non-circulating, closed stack library. Paging is done by library staff during business hours. You can request collection material online at least two business days in advance of your visit, using the request links in Archives at Yale. For more information, please see Planning Your Research Visit and consult the Reading Room Policies prior to visiting the library.