| Repository | Special Collections Archives (GB 0029) |
| Ref No | EUL MS 99 |
| Date | 1938-1976 |
| Level | Collection |
| Extent | 21 boxes, plus 1 oversize photograph |
| Title | Agatha Christie business papers |
| Creator Name | Mallowan, Agatha Mary Clarissa (1890-1976); nee Miller; previously Christie; pen name Agatha Christie; author |
| Cork; Edmund (fl 1930s-1970s); literary agent |
| Various others |
| Description | The archive is the sequence of files from the offices of Hughes Massie and Co. Ltd. relating to Agatha Christie's literary estate prior to her death. For this entire period her agent was Edmund Cork, and these files were created by him to reflect his dealings with publishers, film-makers and other professional persons with an interest in the Christie estate, including Agatha Christie herself, and her husband, Professor Sir Max Mallowan. Each file of correspondence relates to a particular year, and may include correspondence between Agatha Christie and Edmund Cork, correspondence between Cork and an American literary agent, Harold Ober, and other interested parties. There are also files relating to the setting up and administering of Agatha Christie Ltd, and family beneficiaries. The total number of letters in the collection is estimated to be in the region of 5,000-6,000. Only three letters predate 1940, and the files for certain years were not deposited.
Content Advice: Please note that this collection includes problematic terms, or terms that have changed meaning over times, especially in the titles of books, films or plays, such as the original UK title of 'And Then There Were None'. Where these terms appear in titles, they have been included in our catalogue descriptions in order to provide information about the content and nature of the source and to enable discoverability. |
| AdminHistory | Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Mallowan (1890-1976), the novelist known as Agatha Christie, was born in Torquay on 15 September 1890, the third and youngest child of Frederick Alvah Miller of New York and Clarissa Boehmer. She received little or no formal education as a child, but taught herself to read at an early age. She married Archibald Christie in 1914 and they welcomed a daughter, Rosalind, in 1919. During the First World War she worked with the Voluntary Aid Detachment in a local hospital and then in a dispensary. It was at this point that her idea of writing a sleuth story was born, and took the shape of a Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, inspired by Belgian refugees in the UK. In 1921, her first novel, 'The Mysterious Affair at Styles', was published in the UK. Agatha and Archibald Christie divorced in 1928. Following the divorce, Agatha travelled to Baghdad where, in 1930, she met Max Mallowan, an archaeologist. They married later that year. During their marriage, Agatha Christie often accompanied Max Mallowan on archaeological expeditions, and these experiences contributed the settings to several of her novels set in the Middle East and North Africa. Agatha Christie also drew on her experience of international travel when writing her 1934 novel, 'Murder on the Orient Express', which is said to have been based on a journey from Stamboul [Istanbul] to London in 1930. More than twenty more novels had appeared by 1938, when this archive of correspondence files begins, and a further forty followed, plus short stories and plays. Agatha Christie went on to become the world's biggest-selling author and is particularly well-known as the writer of 66 novels and the longest-running play in London, 'The Mousetrap'. She was given a CBE in 1956, an Hon D.Litt. from Exeter in 1961, and in 1971 she was made a Dame of the British Empire. She died on 12 January 1976 at her home in Oxfordshire. |
| Language | English |
| AccessStatus | Open |
| Access Conditions | Some files may contain information on living persons subject to the UK Data Protection Act. Visitors are required to complete and sign our Data Protection form before accessing these files. |
| Copyright | No copying or photography of items created by Agatha Christie is permitted without the prior, written permission of the Christie Estate. Visitors should contact the Christie Archive Trust in advance of their visit to request permission. Limited copying of items not created by Agatha Christie is possible for personal research only, but publication of any item requires permission from the relevant copyright holder. |
| Arrangement | The original order of the files created by Hughes Massie and Co. Ltd. has been retained. Prior to the 1950s, subject-related letters were filed in the main correspondence files; in later years separate files were created (for example, for fan mail, Agatha Christie Ltd. correspondence, and Trustees correspondence). |
| Finding Aids | Files for the years 1938, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1944, 1945, 1947 (1), 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951 and 1952 have been catalogued down to item level as part of a volunteering project. We are grateful to the volunteers who have worked on this project: Rebecca Williams, Molly Batchelor, Alexander Duffy, Joseph Kelliher and Arthur Moon. For all other years, descriptions of the contents are available at file level. Click the collection reference number to view to full archive hierarchy. A '+' symbol indicates there are subfolders; click these to expand. Click a title to open a detailed record. Descriptions of individual letters on this catalogue use the pen name Agatha Christie, even when the letters refer or are addressed to or from her married name, Agatha Mallowan. This decision was made because the novelist is more widely known under her pen name, enabling the archive to be more easily searchable.
This catalogue has been created with the aid of a grant from the National Cataloguing Grants Scheme. |
| Related Material | Original manuscript air mail letter from Agatha Christie to Shirley Dawson, in response to her request for advice on writing (EUL MS 379) held at Special Collections. Christie's literary papers are retained in the possession of the Christie family. Other letter collections are held at Reading University Library, the British Library and St John's College Library, University of Oxford (GB 473 RG/J/Christie). |
| Publication Note | This archive has been referenced in several recent publications on Agatha Christie, including 'Agatha Christie: A Mysterious Life' (Headline, 2007) by Laura Thompson; 'Agatha Christie's Poirot: The Greatest Detective in the World' (HarperCollins, 2020) by Mark Aldridge; 'Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman' (Hodder & Stoughton, 2022) by Lucy Worsley, and 'Agatha Christie’s Marple: Expert on Wickedness' (HarperCollins, 2024) by Mark Aldridge. |
| Management Group | Literary papers |