New accession of Norman McLaren material at University of Stirling Archives

University of Stirling Archives have recently blogged about a new accession of material to their Norman McLaren Archive, consisting of a set of 64 letters, letter-cards and postcards sent by McLaren to his friend (and fellow filmmaker) Helen Biggar in 1936 and 1937. You might remember from our previous post about Helen Biggar, the two met while studying at the Glasgow School of Art, and in 1936 they made the anti-war film Hell Unltd which was recently shown at the Glasgow Film Theatre.

McLaren’s letters to Biggar detail the film’s planning, editing, promotion and distribution. A letter written on 21 April 1936 captures McLaren’s excitement at a moment of creative inspiration:

“Oh Helen – it happened at 7 o’clock tonight – it burst forth like a torrent – a perfect welter and wealth of hot ideas and arrangement and everything – in fact the complete film just gushed from my subconscious mind in great detail – gee its marvelous – our new film…”

Examples of the letters and postcards sent by Norman McLaren to Helen Biggar. Courtesy University of Stirling Archives
Examples of the letters and postcards sent by Norman McLaren to Helen Biggar. Courtesy University of Stirling Archives

To find out more about the Norman McLaren Archive, visit Stirling University Archive’s website and their excellent blog.