The collection is divided into three sections:
Papers created and accumulated by Neville Cardus and passed on to his friend Else Mayer-Lismann, relating chiefly to his work.
Papers created and accumulated by Else Mayer-Lismann, relating both to Cardus and to her own work as an opera critic, and passed on to Donald Wright (who was editing a book of Cardus' work).
Papers relating to Cardus created and accumulated by Donald Wright in the course of his book research.
Sir Neville Cardus, former cricket and music correspondent for the Manchester Guardian, established a reputation as one of the foremost critics of his generation during his time at the newspaper
Born in Manchester and chiefly self-educated, Cardus got a job as music critic to the Daily Citizen in 1913, while also contributing to various musical journals and, between 1912 and 1916, working as cricket coach at Shrewsbury School. He joined the Manchester Guardian in 1917, writing mainly descriptive articles to leaders and assisting music critic Samuel Langford. He wrote his first cricket article for the Guardian under the by-line 'Cricketer' in 1919 and became the paper's regular cricket correspondent thereafter. Following Langford's death in 1927, Cardus became The Guardian's chief music critic and held both posts simultaneously until 1940.
During the 1940s, Cardus write for The Herald and The Sydney Morning Herald in Australia and for the Sunday Times in London. From 1951 he was London music critic for The Manchester Guardian, and he continued to write occasional music and cricket articles for The Guardian throughout the 1950s and 60s. He was awarded a CBE in 1964 and knighted in 1967. He received a Special Press Award from the IPC in 1970.
He married Edith Honorine King in 1921. She died in 1968.
Published books include: Autobiography, A Cricketer's Book, 1921; Days in the Sun, 1924; The Summer Game, 1929; ed., Musical Criticisms of Samuel Langford, 1929; Cricket, 1930; Good Days, 1934; Australian Summer; Ten Composers, 1945 (trans. into Swedish, 1947, into Japanese, 1964); Autobiography, 1947; Second Innings: More Autobiography, 1950; Cricket All the Year, 1952; ed., Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Book, 1954; Close of Play, 1956; Talking of Music, 1957; A Composer's XI, 1958 (German trans. 1961); Komponisten und Dirigenten (German trans.), 1959; Sir Thomas Beecham: A Portrait, 1961; The Playfair Cardus, 1963; Gustav Mahler: His Mind and his Music, Vol. I, 1965; The Delights of Music, 1966; (with John Arlott) The Noblest Game, 196 and Full Score, 1970. Posthumous publications: Cardus on Cricket, 1977; A Fourth Innings with Cardus, 1981.
Files are arranged into three sections in accordance with their provenance and original order.
Some records may be closed to researchers in accordance with the Data Protection Act
A full catalogue description for this collection can be found on the GNM Archive catalogue.
Papers originally belonging to Cardus were left to Elsa Mayer Lismann MBE, a well known German Jewish musician who came to London to escape the Nazis, and who in turn left them to the donor's father, Donald Wright, along with some of Lismann's own papers. Donald Wright's papers relating to his plans for a sequel to his published book Cardus on Music were passed down to the donor along with the Lismann papers as one collection.
