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Index of the Royal Literary Fund Archive

From its earliest days, the RLF has retained substantial archival materials. The archive held on loan by the British Library covers the Fund’s history from its inception in 1790 to 1939 and is arranged in five series:

Loan 96 RLF 1

Case Files of Applicants, 1790 onwards

These 3667 files cover the cases of the applicants who made an first application to the Fund between 1790 and 1939. They contain letters from applicants and their supporters, application forms, administrative documents, receipts and supporting materials such as advertisements, subscription lists and accounts of income. This site provides an index of these case files.

Loan 96 RLF 2

Minute Books, 1790 onwards

Minutes of the meetings of the Committee and Council, recording issues raised and decisions taken (Loan 96 RLF 2/1/1-11). This series also includes indexes and supplementary volumes detailing the activities of various subcommittees (Loan 96 RLF 2/2-4).

Loan 96 RLF 3

Annual Reports, 1792-1966 (with some gaps)

These yearly reports record the organisation’s purposes, finances, officers and subscribers. They also contain accounts of anniversary dinners, with full transcripts of the speeches made. This series also includes a special volume on the controversy surrounding attempts to restructure the Fund in the 1850s led by Charles Dickens, Charles Wentworth Dilke and John Forster.

Loan 96 RLF 4

Anniversary Dinner Documents, 1793-1939

This series contains further records of anniversary dinner, including letters, toast lists, bills, table arrangements, menu cards and financial papers.

Loan 96 RLF 5

Administrative Documents, 1790-1957

These include surviving records of all aspects of the Fund’s activities not covered by the other series, including papers relating to its officers, properties, finances, interactions with other organisations and constitution.

Case Files

Writers applied confidentially to the Fund and their applications and works were considered by the Committee. If applicants were considered to show sufficient literary merit and be in genuine need, a grant was made based on their perceived need and the resources then available.

The case file contains all the documents associated with an application. Each author’s file includes all the surviving records relating to applications made by that author and/or their dependants (after an author’s death, dependants were eligible for aid from the Fund on a single occasion). About 82% of the files contain applications made directly by authors; around 18% solely contain applications from authors’ dependants; 12% of files contain both types of application.

Letters make up the majority of the items in the archive. Most files contain initial application letters from the author or dependant concerned laying out their circumstances as well as two or more letters of reference from friends of the applicant. Application forms were introduced in 1841 by Octavian Blewitt. Applicants were required to give details of the following:

  • Name
  • Profession
  • Age
  • Date and place of birth
  • Marital status
  • Previous applications to the Fund
  • Incomes
  • Published works

The files retain their original numbering and are ordered largely chronologically, based on the date of the first application made by each applicant. Materials within files are ordered by date of application, and broadly chronologically within applications, although the letter and/or form that initiated the application is often placed first to demarcate it, with earlier-dated supporting letters and documents following.

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