File 27 - Letters from Prof. Ross Hoffman of Fordham University, New York

Letters from Prof. Ross Hoffman of Fordham University, New York, to Fr Aubrey Gwynn SJ and Denis Gwynn on personal matters, mainly his work, health and family and discussions on various American Presidents, the Pope and the Church. Includes:
– letter describing his work on arriving at the Manuscript Room in Sheffield Central Library to unpack and sort ‘three boxes (each about 2' by 2' by 8”) of unsorted (Edmund) Burke papers…they are largely the originals of the published letters, but there is also a rich collection of unpublished letters of Earl Fitzwilliam to Burke in the 1790’s and a few other fairly important letters that never have been printed…I am, it seems the first person to examine them since their delivery here…you can imagine how exciting is the experience of turning up, for example, original letters from George III to Rockingham…It is but one of scores, probably hundreds, of museum pieces that are usually kept under lock, key, and glass…collectors would pay fabulous things for these things…There is no one else in the room and I am in a constant state of exaltation, surely this is an experience that comes once in a life-time to one historian in a thousand.’ Also refers to the bomb damage in Sheffield, following the War (1 May 1949, 2pp);
– letter describing his work transcribing the Burke letters – ‘The whole body of documents runs to about 230 letters between 1759 and 1776…they throw a great deal of new light on Anglo-Irish relations, or rather upon Mr. Burke’s idea of those relations’ and his ‘projected book on Burke and the New York Agency, which really is becoming a large work on Burke and the Origins of the American Revolution’ (30 June 1950, 1p.);
– letter to Denis Gwynn concerning a book on Burke and Barry correspondence and his book on Edmund Burke and Charles O’Hara (28 March 1952, 2pp);
– letters on the publication of his books on Edmund Burke and Charles O’Hara and Burke, New York Agent (1956);
– lengthy commentaries on: the American (both internal and external policy, including the Korean and Vietnam Wars and race relations) and British political situations; the awarding of an honorary degree from the National University on him; his book on Lord Charles Rockingham, The Marquis (1973) and
– references to a portrait of Edmund Burke by James Barry in the National Gallery (24 March – September 1973, 4 items).
Also includes letters written by James White, Director of the National Gallery to Fr Gwynn, concerning the portrait which was presented to Trinity College Dublin and ‘is in the Andrew’s Room in the Provost’s House’ (23 August, 4 September 1973, 2 items);
Includes letter to Fr Gwynn from Prof. Hoffman’s daughter, Mary Ellen Flinn, following her father’s death on 16 December 1979. Encloses a memorial card (3 January 1980, 2pp).