A rich collection of mainly English, Scottish and American poetry and publications relating to the craft of producing verse. The presentation inscriptions point to Roddy Lumsden role as mentor to younger poets on both sides of the Atlantic.

The personal papers of local poet Barry MacSweeney (1948-2000), who was an important figure in the Modern Poetry Revival, include manuscripts and published works, correspondence, literature reviews, poetry publications, photographs and newspapers articles.The correspondence includes a range of MacSweeney's friends, fellow poets and family including material from Clive Bush, Pete Bland, Tim Fletcher, Nicholas Johnson, Jackie Litherland, Maggie O'Sullivan, Eric Mottram, Elaine Randall, Jeremy Prynne and Chris Torrence.

The collection spans the poet’s entire creative life and includes journal issues, volumes and ephemeral “hasty editions” associated with spoken word events. Presentation inscriptions in many items attest to the friendship between Barry MacSweeney and his former journalist colleague Terry Kelly.

Consists of an incomplete set of editions of the Makaris poetry broadsheet as published by Durham University Literary Society between 1965 and 1971.

Personal papers of Jack Mapanje including correspondence, press cuttings, books and draft manuscripts relating to his time as a political prisoner in Malawi, the campaign for his release and the publication of his poetry.

L.T. Meade (1854-1914) was the Irish daughter of a Protestant clergyman who later moved to London. She contributed short stories and articles to magazines such as The Strand Magazine and edited the periodical Atlanta but became better-known for her novels. She tried her hand at several genres, including crime fiction, but is most closely associated with stories which targeted a female audience, notably stories about girls' schools.

Meade wrote approximately 250 books and we have about 180 in our holdings which were published from 1878 and as recently as 2003. Titles include: The autocrat of the nursery, The children of Wilton Chase, Kitty O'Donovan, and The Scamp family. The collection was gifted to the Library by Jean Garriock.

This archive consists of 26 limited edition prints of posters relating to poetry readings at Morden Tower, Newcastle.

A rich collection of mainly Anglo-American poetry with authors’ presentation inscriptions which offer a glimpse into the vast interpersonal network of relationships which Tom Pickard established around the Morden Tower venue over four decades with modernist poets including Basil Bunting, Barry MacSweeney and Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

A collection of 20th century British and American authors, including avant-garde local author Barry MacSweeney and “Black Mountain poet” Robert Creeley: the ephemeral and rare nature of the “hasty editions” and the presentation inscriptions attest to the authors’ closeness with Ric and Annie Caddel, whose Pig Press played an important part in the British Poetry Revival.

The Pollard Collection was brought together by Mr Eric Pollard and was purchased from the family with support from the Friends of the University Library in 2011. It focuses on the author, Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) being particularly rich in early editions of his works. The collection includes a series of short stories, published as 'The Railway Library', which made Kipling's name as a writer in India, England and America. There are also many of his classic novels and works of children's literature such as Puck of Pook's Hill. During the First World War, Kipling devoted his writing to the war effort and this is represented in the collection too. Besides printed books the Pollard Collection includes cuttings and ephemera relating to Kipling as well as 16 colour folio plates by the artists Maurice and Edward Detmold, produced to illustrate the 1908 Macmillan octavo edition of The Jungle Book.