Angus Calder 1942-2008

From Dorothy Sheridan, Director of the Mass Observation Archive:

On 5 June 2008, my good friend, Angus Calder, died in Edinburgh at the age of 66. Angus was an eminent historian, a poet, a renowned raconteur, and a highly respected literary scholar. The first of his many substantial books was The People’s War, a monumental work which has remained in print since 1969 when it first appeared. It is still considered to be the best history of the home front in Britain during the Second World War. He was also one of the foremost champions of the Mass Observation Archive as a historical resource.

It was while researching for The People’s War that Angus first came across the Mass Observation papers. They were stored, unused and probably almost forgotten, in the premises of MO (UK) Ltd. Seeing the potential of the papers, he decided to contact his former DPhil supervisor at the University of Sussex, Professor Asa Briggs (now Lord Briggs). In his letter dated  31 October 1965, he wrote:

"Last Tuesday I visited the present Headquarters of Mass Observation at 148 Cromwell Rd Kensington. They have three rooms in the basement literally stuffed to the ceilings with the raw materials from which reports have been compiled – leaflets, pamphlets, interviews, diaries, cuttings, unedited reports by observers and so on. Their recent stuff is of small interest – they are now a market research firm…… but this hoard of badly-filed, dusty paper contains what I take to be a unique collection of first hand evidence on the social history of Britain in the 30s and 40s. Certainly much more stuff than I can handle….. there’s an element of urgency… and I wonder if there is any chance that you could authorise me to bid for Sussex or perhaps step in personally. My interest isn’t just in getting the material where I can work on it easily – I do think rightly or wrongly, that it’s the kind of stuff Sussex needs.”

Asa Briggs acted on Angus’s suggestion. By 1970, the Mass Observation papers were safely at Sussex and one of the original founders of MO, Tom Harrisson, was invited to establish the collection as a resource for historical research. In 1975, Asa, (by then the University of Sussex’s Vice Chancellor), formally opened the Archive to the public.

Angus and I began working together soon after and we jointly edited the first anthology from the Archive, Speak for Yourself (Jonathan Cape 1984). Angus remained an ardent supporter of Mass Observation all his life and was huge support to me in my writing and career development. He was commissioned to write a history of Mass Observation by Jonathan Cape but he was taken up with his many other projects and publication and the history never appeared – though drafts do exist.

His funeral took place in Edinburgh last week but I understand from his family that there is to be a celebration of his life and a tree planting in his memory next February. Donations to the Scottish Poetry Library are invited in his memory.