Pikle - The Diary Junction - Richard Crossman

PIKLE · THEDIARYJUNCTION . KIPFENN · CONTACT

THIS IS THE DIARY JUNCTION - DATA AND LINKS FOR OVER 500 HISTORICAL AND LITERARY DIARISTS
PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT ALSO TO LOOK AT KIP FENN, A MAJOR NOVEL ABOUT THE 21st CENTURY - freely available on this site

Crossman, Richard ___ 1907-1974 ___ British ___ politician

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
The son of a judge, Crossman was brought up in Oxfordshire, and educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford. He worked first as a teacher at Oxford University and then at the Worker's Educational Association. By the mid-1930s, he was a journalist on the 'New Statesman' and the leader of the Labour Party group on Oxford City Council. During the Second World War, he worked as a civil servant in the Psychological Warfare Department, and was awarded an OBE for his services. He became an MP in 1945 and became associated with a group of left-wing members, some of whom produced a tract, entitled 'Keep Left', which urged a closer relationship with Europe, so as to create a 'Third Force' in politics. After the 1964 General Election, Harold Wilson appointed Crossman as Minister of Housing, and then Leader of the House of Commons (in which role he reformed the select committee system) and then Secretary of State for Social Studies. After the Conservatives returned to power, Crossman resigned the Labour front bench and became editor of the 'New Statesman'. Crossman kept a detailed political diaries during his time as an MP and as a government minister. They were the first of their kind to reveal the inner workings of government, and, as such, are much celebrated.
One biography link

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1951-1970 ___ political people historyeye

WEB TEXT LINKS

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
Warwick University, Modern Records Centre

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister
The Crossman Diaries
The Backbench Diaries of Richard Crossman

May 2005
THIS IS THE DIARY JUNCTION - DATA AND LINKS FOR OVER 500 HISTORICAL AND LITERARY DIARISTS
Please email if you have any corrections, additions or comments.

IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS:
1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.