A.L.Rowse
Alfred Leslie Rowse (1903-1997) was a Cornish historian, poet, diarist, biographer and critic. He was born in Tregonissey near St. Austell, Cornwall. He won a scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford, gaining a first class honours degree in history in 1925 when he was also elected Fellow of All Souls, Oxford (the first man from a working-class background to do so). It was during this period that he established so many of the social contacts with academic, political and literary circles within which he was to move for the remainder of his life. He stood unsuccessfully for parliament at Penryn and Falmouth in 1931 and 1935. He became Sub-Warden of the All Souls but was defeated in his election as Warden in 1952, shortly after which he retired to Trenarren, his Cornish home, for the remainder of his life. He began to publish relatively late in life. He produced a tremendous output of works on both history and Shakespeare between the 1950s and 1980s, and published 65 of his 105 books after the age of 65. A.L. Rowse spoke and wrote openly about his views on sexuality, including his own, and published a book entitled 'Homosexuals in History' (1977).
Rowse was a prolific letter writer and there is correspondance from a number of well known figures in the archive, including John Betjeman, Jack Clemo, Antonia Fraser, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Bertrand Russell, Margaret Thatcher and Harold Wilson.
As well as his personal papers - which range from research notes and book drafts to birthday cards - Rowse also gave the university a copy of each of the books he wrote. These include books on history - predominantly the early modern period and Shakespeare - but also autobiographies, books of poetry and even biographies of his cats. Some of the books include cuttings of reviews and other personal notes and many have inscriptions by Rowse. Also in his bequest was a selection of books from his library, and these include books from the seventeenth century as well as more recent publications.
For a larger view of the exhibition board click on the image to take you through to the image page, then click on it again to view it in a zoomable format.
You can find out more about the A.L. Rowse archives and collections held in Special Collections on the archives catalogue.
A.L Rowse features twice in the PenPals exhibition, as he communicated with several of the writers featured in the trail. The exhibition board relating to A.L. Rowse and Charles Causley is currently being hosted at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum cafe until September 2023. The exhibition board relating to A.L. Rowse and Agatha Christie is currently being hosted at the Exeter Phoenix until September 2023.