Sylvia Townsend Warner Fundraising Appeal

Dorset Archives Trust is leading a fundraising appeal to bring the Archive of writer and LGBTQ+ pioneer Sylvia Townsend Warner (1893-1978) into the public domain through the creation of a full catalogue.  This way it can be discovered and searched online opening up new lines of enquiry and research into one of Dorset and the UK’s literary treasures.  Our ambition is to facilitate greater understanding, awareness and appreciation of this fascinating writer, the author of seven novels and many poems and short stories including 154 that were published in the New Yorker magazine. 

Warner’s status and reputation have grown in recent years with the republication of her novels, radio adaptations and most recently, the unveiling of a statue of the author, her cat and various of her manuscripts in Dorchester town centre following a campaign by charity Visible Women. 

The archive consists of 85 boxes of records – diaries, letters, photographs, drawings and printed materials – the raw materials of Warner’s creative life.  It was deposited in 2018 at Dorset History Centre (DHC) in Dorchester by Dorset Museum and Art Gallery.  DHC and DAT working together wish to bring the archive to a much wider audience.  Following successful campaigns to raise funds to catalogue the archives of Thomas Hardy and William Barnes, Sylvia Townsend Warner is the third of our key Dorset authors whose archives deserve to be much more widely known about.  Experience clearly demonstrates that once a collection has an online catalogue interest in it grows and sustains with people travelling to view and use the archive or requesting digital copies of items within it. 

The archive is, along with her published works, Warner’s true legacy. 

Find more information and to donate.