Lindsay Anderson Archive
Collection Reference: GB 0559 LA
Biographical History:
Lindsay Anderson (1923-94) film-maker, theatre director, critic and actor. The son of a British army officer, he was born in Bangalore, India, attended Cheltenham College and Oxford University. While at Oxford he co-founded the film magazine Sequence in 1947. He became a documentary film-maker in the 1950s and was one of the founders of the ‘Free Cinema’ movement which challenged the established cosy images of British life with a series of dramas and documentaries portraying subjects hitherto rarely seen on screen. In 1962 Anderson directed his first feature film, This Sporting Life , starring Richard Harris. In 1968 Anderson made If…. which won the Palm D’or at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival. Other films included O Lucky Man! (1972) and Britannia Hospital (1982). Anderson also had a long and distinguished career in the theatre. He directed many productions for the Royal Court Theatre, where he directed his first play in 1957. He also wrote a number of works on the cinema including Making a Film – the Story of Secret People (1952) and About John Ford (1981). His final work was the autobiographical television documentary Is that all there is? (1992).
Contents:
Correspondence, production notes, scripts, photographs, promotional material and press cuttings relating to all of Lindsay Anderson’s films and 40 of this theatre productions; correspondence and scripts relating to unrealised film projects; general correspondence files (1970s-90s); correspondence and minutes of Royal Court Theatre; correspondence with the British Film Institute (1974-94); correspondence with the BBC (1977-94); personal diaries and working papers; theatre and film posters; scrapbooks; awards and memorabilia. The collection also includes Anderson’s personal library of books (mainly relating to film and theatre).
Catalogue information: Full details of the Lindsay Anderson Archive are included on the online archives catalogue.
Custodial History: The collection was transferred to the University of Stirling from the Scottish Screen Archive in 2001.
Access Conditions: A small amount of personal material is closed to researchers. Please contact the University Archives for further details.
Digitised content:
- Sequence: digitised set of the film magazine available on our JSTOR Open Community Collection pages
- Free Cinema: a set of digitised documents available on our JSTOR Open Community Collection pages
- Photograph albums: a set of digitised albums from the 1950s available on our University Archives flickr pages
- The Cinema Authorship of Lindsay Anderson: a three year AHRC-funded project examining Anderson’s films through a study of his archive
Recent Publications:
- Hedling, E & Dupin, C (eds), Lindsay Anderson Revisited – Unknown Aspects of a Film Director (London, 2016)
- Hedling, Erik, Lindsay Anderson, Maverick Film-maker (London, 1998)
- Izod, John, Lindsay Anderson – Cinema Authorship (Manchester, 2012)
- Lambert, Gavin, Mainly About Lindsay Anderson (London, 2000)
- Ryan, Paul (ed.), Never Apologise: The Collected Writings of Lindsay Anderson (London, 2004)
- Sutton, Paul (ed.), The Lindsay Anderson Diaries (London, 2004)
