In Memory of Carmen Callil

Carmen Callil, writer, creator and founding father of Virago Press died on Monday.

Callil based the publishing home Virago Press, in 1972, and was additionally Managing Director of Chatto and Windus and the Hogarth Press between 1982-1994. Callil remained Chairman of Virago Press till 1995 and was additionally a member of the Board of Channel 4 Television, between 1985 and 1991, and a member of the committee for The Booker Prize between 1979-1984.

Callil wrote and printed in her personal proper, together with Bad Faith: A Forgotten History of Family and Fatherland, a biography of Louis Darquier de Pellepoix and Vichy France, printed in 2006.

The British Library Contemporary Archives and Manuscripts Department holds the archive of Virago Press, in addition to the just lately acquired private papers of Callil herself. A really modern assortment, with materials spanning into the 2010s, the Carmen Callil archive remains to be being catalogued and is predicted to be accessible to researchers in 2023.  

As the cataloguer of this materials, it was an honour to have the ability to work alongside Callil whereas processing it. She was all the time supportive and within the work we have been doing, in addition to captivated with taking part in occasions and analysis, and with serving to our workforce to navigate the collections.

‘Keep whatever you think a student of women’s literature in 2000 want to find out about us’ [1] Callil wrote on an inside memo to the workers of the Virago Press within the early Eighties.

The message seems to have been taken on board. Both the Virago Press Papers and the Carmen Callil Archive come collectively to create an exquisite useful resource for researchers in a variety of areas, in addition to being a becoming a part of remembering Carmen herself.

The Virago Press Archive, Add MS 88904, is accessible within the Manuscripts Reading room.

The Carmen Callil Archive, Add MS 89178, is presently being catalogued and will probably be launched to researchers in 2023. Please contact eleanor.dickens@bl.uk for any enquiries.

References: 

[1] The Carmen Callil Archive, Add MS 89178/1/71