New exhibition sheds light on the cutting room floor of modern literature

The Bodleian Libraries have announced the launch of Write, Cut, Rewrite, a new exhibition opening on 29 February 2024 at the Weston Library, which focuses on the creative importance of revision in literature. Often referred to as ‘killing your darlings’, Write, Cut, Rewrite delves into the editing, cutting and creative undoing of some of the world’s most celebrated authors, revealing little-known literary treasures.

Curated by Dirk Van Hulle, Professor of Bibliography and Modern Book History at the University of Oxford, and Mark Nixon, Professor of Modern Literature and Beckett Studies at the University of Reading, the exhibition will offer a peek behind the scenes into writers’ workshops, drawing upon The Bodleian Libraries’ unparalleled collection of modern manuscripts from the 18th century to today. Write, Cut, Rewrite showcases the contrast and impact of edits, turning simple cuts into present absences and rewriting our relationship with much-loved texts we thought we knew.

‘The exhibition reveals ideas that did not make it into some of our best-known novels, poems or plays – ideas that can only be recovered in manuscripts, held in archives and special collections’, commented the curators, Professor Dirk Van Hulle and Professor Mark Nixon.

Write, Cut, Rewrite will feature abandoned works, such as Jane Austen’s The Watsons, and cases of censorship, such as Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. It also touches on the revisions and rewritings of famous books, offering visitors a unique chance to look over the shoulder of literary greats at the moment of creation. Highlights include discarded ideas, fundamental changes, deletions, additions, notes and scribbles from great authors such as: Mary and Percy Shelley, Jane Austen, James Joyce, Raymond Chandler, Ian Fleming, Samuel Beckett, and John le Carré.

Other insights from the cutting room floor will include the original ending to Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep, George Eliot’s reading notes, Franz Kafka’s cuts in the manuscript of his novel The Castle, and a description in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein extracted from Percy Shelley’s journal.

Richard Ovenden, Bodley’s Librarian, said “The editorial process, an integral step in the creation of great works of literature, is invisible to the reader when they are enjoying a favourite novel or poem. Our exhibition attempts to bring these cuts and rewrites back from obscurity. Our Write, Cut, Rewrite exhibition, invites avid readers along on a journey with some of the greatest writers revisiting the passages that were removed, and restoring earlier versions of great literary classics.”

To accompany the exhibition on 29 February 2024, Bodleian Library Publishing will be releasing Write, Cut, Rewrite: The Cutting Room Floor of Modern Literature, written by Dirk Van Hulle and Mark Nixon. The exhibition forms part of the Season of Great Writers at the Bodleian Libraries. The season will celebrate great authors from across the Bodleian’s collections through public displays and events, including the exhibitions Chaucer Here and Now and Kafka: Making An Icon. Write, Cut, Rewrite will contribute to this rich programme, covering the breadth of literary history with its wide range of great literary voices.

For further information or to speak to the curators, please contact bodleianlibraries@flint-culture.com

NOTES TO EDITOR

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Related publications from Bodleian Library Publishing
Write, Cut, Rewrite: The Cutting Room Floor of Modern Literature, written by Dirk Van Hulle and Mark Nixon (29th February 2024)
Please contact Emma O’Bryen for more information at emma@obryen.co.uk

About the Bodleian Libraries
The Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford is the largest university library system in the United Kingdom. It includes the principal University library – the Bodleian Library – which has been a legal deposit library for 400 years; as well as 26 libraries across Oxford including major research libraries and faculty,
department, and institute libraries. Together, the Libraries hold more than 13 million printed items, over 80,000 e-journals and outstanding special collections including rare books and manuscripts, classical papyri, maps, music, art, and printed ephemera. Members of the public can explore the collections via the Bodleian’s online image portal at digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk or by visiting the exhibition galleries in the Bodleian’s Weston Library. For more information, visit www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

About Bodleian Library Publishing
Bodleian Library Publishing helps to bring some of the riches of Oxford’s libraries to readers around the world through a range of beautiful and authoritative books. We publish approximately twenty-five new books a year on a wide range of subjects, including titles related to our exhibitions, illustrated and non-illustrated books, facsimiles, children’s books and stationery. We have a current backlist of over 250 titles. All of our profits are returned to the Bodleian and help support the Library’s work in curating, conserving and expanding its rich archives, helping to maintain the Bodleian’s position as one of the pre-eminent libraries in the world.