Lizzie Dripping and the Ladies from Sussex:

Affective Presence in the Archive

Katharine WoodsPhD Information Studies, HATII

Year 1, Part-time

Lizzie Dripping‘It often looked as if she was telling what most people would call fibs. She wasn't of course. She was just making things up as she went along --- and that is quite a different matter’

‘Lizzie was a very honest fibber.’(Cresswell, 1973, pp1-2, p30)

Ladies from Sussex‘I spent a considerable part of each day replying to the letters and was actually glad when, one day, a very rude letter arrived from a lady who lived in Sussex.’

‘no matter where the letters came from, no matter what the sex of the writers might be, Rory [the postman] was always greeted with the words : “Are there any Ladies from Sussex among them the-day, Rory?”’

(Duncan, 1976, pp75 and 77)

Affective Presence‘There is a deeply affective side to historical work which might not be readily admitted in print but which animates discussions among colleagues and sends historians dashing to archives, pencils sharpened, digital cameras charged, minds racing.’

‘the physical touch of documents is often an essential part of the inspiration that moves a researcher to make a serendipitous discovery--it connects the researcher in a very real way to the period under study. […] the feeling of holding that document has never left me.’

Jane Duncan

Born 1910, died1976

Lived: Environs of Glasgow, the south of England, Biggar, Jamaica and the Black Isle

Attended Glasgow University 1927-1930 and Glasgow Business School

Served with the WAAF in WW2, and was commissioned into Photographic Intelligence

Did not marry but lived with Sandy Clapperton as man and wife

Wrote books to earn a living after Sandy’s death

Based on a True Story

Seven manuscripts simultaneously accepted for publication by Macmillan

Nineteen ‘My Friends’ novels

Five ‘Camerons’ books

Four ‘Jean’ books

Three ‘Janet Reachfar’ picture books

One autobiographical FAQ

Readers in Archives

‘if archives are only for your own family’s history, for your psychological needs, for your own version of history, and for your own sense of identity, there may not be any room to learn about or identify with others’

(Little, 2007, p111)

What’s the Story?

‘Along with her worldwide family of readers, we have wondered what is fact, fiction or myth, particularly in the relation of her fictional ‘I’, Janet Sandison, to her actual life and self.’

Hart and Hart (1997, p468)

Policing the Boundaries‘texts that cannot easily be constituted as 'national' texts in their content, theme or style, or writers whose political opinions are not in line with literary nationalism are omitted from the canon – despite its ostensible plurality. This results in a rather one-sided depiction of political views, of the oeuvre of certain authors and of the kind of genres that are considered most representative of the nation.’

(Preuss, 2011)

In

‘History and society merely externalize the sad imperatives of personal growth […] It is the central paradox of elegy: the exploration of loss transforms the lost beloved into a reality of transcendent power; space and time become a new dimension in memory.’

Hart (1978, p386)

Out

‘The most prolific Scottish women writers are those who deal with family life - usually happy - in a couthy, pawky way […] an idealised rural setting, in series such as Jane Duncan’s Reachfar books’

(Shepherd, 1980, p53)

Elizabeth to Jane

Jane to Janet

Readers in Books‘“The person that hears the story makes it different.”

I looked at the boy with admiration. “Sometimes,” I said, “I think that Duncan is the only one in this family who has any real sense. Of course, the person who hears the story or reads the story contributes just as much to it as the person who tells it or writes it.”’

‘In the original script, every other page contained the words ‘ Dear Reader’ because I had always liked this direct old-fashioned approach to the reader and I thought it conveyed the thought behind my writing. I write as a friend to a friend who is my dear reader.’

(Duncan, (1976, 1975)

Readers in Archives

University of Glasgow Library, Special Collections

Papers of Elizabeth Jane Cameron (Jane Duncan)

MS Gen 1770

MS Gen 1770/A – Published and unpublished manuscripts

Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String

Order: MS Gen 1770/A/1/62

Ask The Expert

‘interaction, intervention, interrogation and interpretation by creator, user and archivist’

(Ketelaar, 2005)

Personal Fonds

‘Crowded, confused, over-full of memories and associations as my mind was, this was what gave me identity. Without it, I would be a nemo-sign, a non-person’

(Duncan, 1974, p18)

The Double Ouroboros