DL/A-Z//BEC - [Correspondence with Antony R. Beck]

DL/A-Z//BEC

File

[Correspondence with Antony R. Beck]

09/09/1975-17/10/1975

7 Letters (typescript and MS)

Beck, Antony R

001 is a letter from Commander Thomas Fox-Pitt to Doris Lessing. He refers to correspondence [enclosed, 002] indicating that Antony R Beck is seeking information about Lessing. Fox-Pitt asks whether he should do his best to answer Beck's questions. He questions Beck's use of English, and states that any biography should be written by a "master". Wonders whether Beck is a postgraduate student. Discusses farming.

002 is collated and forwarded correspondence comprising a letter from Antony R. Beck to Tom Ponsonby of the Fabian Society requesting information about Lessing in the Fabian Colonial Bureau, and a reply from Ponsonby to Beck suggesting he contact Fox-Pitt for information.

003 is a letter from Beck to Fox-Pitt. He states that he is writing a study of Lessing that is not biographical but is "an analysis of the political and social themes in her novels and plays". He mentions racial and political issues in Southern Rhodesia as a theme of Lessing's work. He asks for data with which to compare Lessing's image of Rhodesian society with other treatments.

004 is a letter from Fox-Pitt to Lessing. He states that Beck has contacted him and encloses his letter [003]. He says he has nothing to tell Beck, unless Lessing asks him to do so.

005 is a letter from Lessing to Beck: "I hear you are writing a book about me. I would very much rather you did not." Tersely states that her friends would not talk to him if she told them not to.

006 is a letter from Beck to Lessing. He states that he was upset by the tone of Lessing's letter, since they had been in correspondence and he had interviewed her in the past. He states that he is not interested in Lessing's private life and only seeks information about the political situation in Southern Rhodesia.

007 is a letter from Lessing to Beck. She states that his project is "misconceived" since she is not a historical novelist, but merely uses history as a stage for her characters. She stresses the difference between a novelist and a journalist, and denies that any real events appear in her fiction. She states that Beck is political and she is not. "It seems to me that my novels may have interest for a sociologist, but not someone interested in collecting facts." She points out a minor error in one of his earlier letters.