A Fund for Writers
David Williams , a philosopher, former dissenting minister and educationalist, established the Literary Fund in 1790 to provide confidential financial aid to struggling writers, an activity that has continued ever since.
Williams had floated the idea as early as 1773, but initially failed to attract an influential patron. He was spurred on by the fate of the Plato scholar Floyer Sydenham, who died after being imprisoned for a small debt in 1787, and raised funds from friends and acquaintances. The Literary Fund was awarded a Charter in 1818 and permitted to add ‘Royal’ to its title in 1842, thanks to the enthusiastic support of Prince Albert.
The RLF makes grants to authors in genuine difficulties who are deemed by its Committee to have produced works of literary merit and has helped over 5500 writers since its inception. Well-known authors helped include Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Charlotte Lennox, Chateaubriand, Thomas Love Peacock, John Clare, Felicia Hemans, James Hogg, Joseph Conrad, D.H. Lawrence, James Joyce, Bram Stoker, Edith Nesbit, Arthur Machen, Dorothy Richardson, John Middleton Murry, and Dylan Thomas.
The Committee
The Committee is the major decision-making body of the RLF; at the Fund’s inception it was formed from a small club of liberal, professional men who were friends with David Williams and sympathised with his objectives. Soon after it became more diverse, made up of writers, booksellers, and actors, as well as doctors, artists and politicians.
Over the years, it has included a number of famous writers, including Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope and Rose Macaulay (its first female member). Journalists, publishers, lawyers, accountants and literary agents have all played important roles in ensuring the Fund’s success. The current Charter stipulates that the Committee is elected by the members (individual and corporate) at the Annual General Meeting.
Clerks and Secretaries
The work of running the RLF has been undertaken by officials appointed by the Committee.
In 1800 the Committee hired a Clerk to carry out administrative work, deal with accounts and take correspondence with applicants. In 1836, the role of Clerk was replaced by that of Secretary, expanding to a wider range of responsibilities relating to the Fund’s operations.
Octavian Blewitt became secretary in 1839. Blewitt had medical training and had written travel books for John Murray and a work extolling Christian virtues. A diligent administrator, he exerted great influence over the Fund’s business, formalising the application process through the introduction of a printed form in 1841, fundraising through Anniversary Dinners and having considerable say in the Fund’s direction.
It was Blewitt who first organised, ordered and catalogued the Fund’s papers, creating and shaping the archive that today resides at the British Library. From this time onwards, the Secretary was the main point of contact for writers applying to the Fund. The Secretary prepared cases for presentation to the Committee and was responsible for the logistical aspects of disbursing grants to authors. Consequently, many of the letters within the archive are addressed to the Secretary, either by name or by title. Today this work is handled by a Grants team.
Clerks
1800-1807 Edmund Baker
1807-1821 Charles Lamborn
1821-1822 Henry Leave
1822-1836 Joseph Snow
Secretaries
1836-1837 Cusack Patrick Roney
1837-1839 Whittington Henry Landon
1839-1884 (John) Octavian Blewitt
1884-1919 Arthur Llewelyn Roberts
1919-1945 Hugh John Cole Marshall
1945-1966 John G Broadbent
1966-1982 Victor Bonham-Carter
1982-1986 Antony Mackenzie Smith
1986-1999 Fiona McKenzie Clark
Secretary & Chief Executive
1999-2021 Eileen Gunn
Chief Executive
2021-present Edward Kemp
Head of Grants
2021-present Justine Palmer
Funding
The Fund was initially financed by a small group of Williams’s friends and acquaintances, but it acquired a wider circle of subscribers as it became more established. It raised both profile and funds by hosting lavish Anniversary Dinners in most years between 1792 and 1939. These were major occasions, featuring speeches from many of the most respected writers, politicians and public figures of the times. The Fund has also been the beneficiary of numerous estates. It receives no public subsidy.
The RLF today
Grants and pensions to writers in financial difficulty still form a core part of the RLF’s mission. However, a number of significant legacies have enabled the organisation to develop its public education work and deploy writers in the service of wider society. RLF writers work as Fellows in universities where they coach students one-to-one with essay writing; they deliver writing workshops in schools to bolster young people’s confidence and skills; they run community reading groups where poetry and prose are approached from the writers’ perspective; they use reading and writing to support the development of NHS employees, young offenders, refugees and a host of others.
For details of our current work, see:
www.rlf.org.uk