Mark Hinchliffe Ted Hughes Collection

The collection includes signed first editions of dozens of Hughes’s trade, limited-edition and fine-press publications. It also includes original letters written by Hughes; a letter to an editor by Hughes' first wife, the poet Sylvia Plath; a photograph album including previously unknown photographs of both Hughes and Plath; a copy of the Cambridge literary magazine St. Botolph’s Review (1956) containing four poems by Hughes and signed by contributor and Hughes’s long-time friend Daniel Huws (the launch party of the magazine was famously the occasion when Hughes met Plath); a fine ceramic jaguar sculpted by Hughes in 1967, the only intact example anywhere in the world of Hughes’s work in the plastic arts; a holograph manuscript of ‘Orpheus & Eurydice’ (broadcast as Orpheus by the BBC in 1971 and in 1973) with some significant differences to the broadcast and published versions; a bespoke edition of the Gehenna Press’s limited edition Howls & Whispers, comprising the original fine-book plus a ‘making copy’; eight original watercolours by Leonard Baskin and a unique copper-plate, engraved portrait of Sylvia Plath by Baskin.

The collection also includes Mark Hinchliffe's personal archive. This comprises correspondence with Ted Hughes, Olwyn Hughes (Hughes' sister), Nicholas Hughes (Hughes' son), and Carol Hughes (Hughes’ widow), as well as Hughes scholars and collectors.

This collection has been purchased with support from the Arts Council England/V&A Purchase Grant Fund; National Heritage Memorial Fund, and Friends of the National Libraries.

This collection is not currently fully catalogued, please contact the archive team archives@hud.ac.uk for further assistance.

The Ted Hughes Research Network Archive (held at the University of Huddersfield, THN) ; the Donald Crossley Archive (held at the University of Huddersfield, CRS), the Christopher Reid Papers (held at the University of Huddersfield, CPR).

Mark Hinchliffe (1960-2019) was a poet, a collector of Ted Hughes?s books and manuscripts, and a former Director and Chair of the Elmet Trust.

As an aspiring poet, Mark was smitten by Hughes?s work as a 14 years-old schoolboy when a schoolteacher played the class a recording of Hughes reading ?Capturing Animals?a broadcast Hughes made for the BBC that was subsequently collected in his book, Poetry in the Making (1967)?and immediately began collecting his published works. Mark first heard Hughes read aged 17, in 1978, on an Arvon Foundation creative writing course at Lumb Bank, Heptonstall (Hughes?s former home). Mark became a close and regular correspondent with Hughes from 1978 to 1998, the year of Hughes?s death: extracts from three of Hughes?s letters to Mark were published in Christopher Reid?s Letters of Ted Hughes (2007). The two would exchange and discuss books and ideas, and Mark would send Hughes copies of his own poetry, to which Hughes responded with praise and encouragement. Mark also corresponded with Hughes?s wife Carol, his daughter Frieda, and became good friends with Hughes?s sister and literary agent, Olwyn. He also developed close relationships with a wide range of individuals from Hughes?s various worlds?former University friends, fellow poets, scholars, collectors, rare book dealers and enthusiasts. Mark began collecting ?Hughesiana? from the mid-seventies until the year of his death, over time amassing a fabulous and important collection.

After graduating from Birmingham University with a degree in English Literature in 1981, Mark initially qualified as a teacher, but subsequently retrained as a psychiatric nurse, a profession he followed for 25 years. In the late 1980s Mark settled in his natal Huddersfield with his wife Julie, also a nursing professional, and their two children. During this period Mark began to develop his interest in Hughes in earnest, continuing to write to Hughes and network in the ?Hughes community? of poets, scholars, Hughes?s friends and family, booksellers and collectors. He also continued to write poetry and was published in several journals and anthologies. During the 1990s Mark became co-editor of Asylum literary magazine and joined the long-standing and regionally important ?Albert Poets? group in Huddersfield, eventually becoming a leading member?organising a monthly reading of four poets (established and beginners) and facilitating a weekly creative writing workshop. In this work Mark made a huge contribution to the poetic ecology of West Yorkshire and helped develop the careers, showcase the talents and develop the craft of hundreds of poets, many who went on to be published. Mark himself fulfilled a lifelong ambition when his first published collection, The Raven and the Laughing Head, was published by Calder Valley Poetry in 2016?the launch event, at the Albert Pub, featured a guest reading by the then Oxford Professor of Poetry and future Poet Laureate Simon Armitage. In 2018, a second book, Miss Gale?s Garden, followed with the same publisher.

After Hughes?s death in 1998 (as a friend of both Hughes and Hughes?s sister Olwyn) Mark and Julie attended the funeral & memorial services at St. Peter?s Church/Hughes?s family home, North Tawton, Devon?they also attended the 2011 Westminster Abbey ceremony in which Hughes?s memorial was laid in Poets Corner), Mark intensified his collecting, joined the newly formed Ted Hughes Society and became a founding member, director and latterly, chair, of The Elmet Trust, the Upper Calder Valley organisation formed to promote Hughes?s work and legacy in his natal region. Due to his connections in the ?Hughes world? Mark was able to secure a number of eminent poets and speakers with direct connections to Hughes for the various events and festivals run by the Elmet Trust, including scholars Keith Sagar, Terry Gifford, Neil Roberts and Mark Wormald, poet (and Hughes?s Editor at Faber), Christopher Reid, poet (and Hughes?s Cambridge friend) Daniel Huws, Hughes?s fishing pal and fellow- ecological activist Ian Cook, writer and Hughes enthusiast Marina Warner and poets Simon Armitage, Kathleen Jamie and Hughes?s daughter, Frieda. During his time at the Elmet Trust, Mark was able to facilitate and encourage the work of Donald Crossley, a Mytholmroyd resident and childhood friend of Hughes, who was liaising with Gerald Hughes (by mail?Gerald had emigrated to Australia), Ted?s older brother, to reconstruct aspects of Hughes?s childhood in Mytholmroyd, matching poems to locations and researching into the Upper Calder Valley background of Hughes?s writings. Crossley?s unique and rich archive was deposited at Heritage Quay in 2016 by his daughter Ruth.

Mark attended and gave papers at Ted Hughes Society Conferences from 2010 and had Hughes-related papers published in journals or essay collections, most recently ?Hughes?s Publication History? in Terry Gifford?s Ted Hughes in Context (Cambridge University Press: 2018). In the winter of 2012 the international literary collectors? journal The Private Library published an article by Simon Cooke entitled, ?The Mark Hinchcliffe Collection of Books by Ted Hughes?, which highlighted the comprehensiveness of the collection and some of the rarer items.

Mark suffered from ill-health in his later years, but he maintained his various roles and responsibilities and continued to develop his collection?making a number of purchases from the sale of items put up for sale by Frieda Hughes at Bonhams in 2018, for example.

Mark died at the age of 59 in November 2019.