Unpublished Writings

This page contains a chronological list of all known unpublished writings by Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji. Those that are part of the Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji Collection at McMaster University are identified by the reference to box/folder in curly brackets, e.g., {3/F.5}; the others are in the Sorabji Archive’s collection.

The unpublished texts listed below have been edited and extensively annotated by Marc-André Roberge in preparation for a forthcoming publication.

The list is divided into two categories:

Dated Essays
Undated Essays

Dated Essays

“The Fruits of Misanthropy, being The Animadversions of a Machiavellian” [referred to by Frank Holliday as Sorabji’s “Commonplace Book”] (1925-30 et sequitur) {box 9, item 4}. Nos. I, XIV, XLV, LXXII, CXXIV, CCLXXVIII, CCCXXVIII, CCCLXXIX, CDIX (in Sorabji’s incorrect numbering) are reproduced in SCC, 325-27.

Additional pages (3) for the essay “Music and Sex” (1953?) {3/F.5}.

[“Animadversions. Essay about His Works Published on the Occasion of the Microfilming of Some of His Manuscripts”]. 18 pp. (lacking pp. 1-3) (1953).

“A Further Notes on the Writer’s Published Compositions”. 4 pp., accompanying a letter to Norman Gentieu, [between 21 and 30] May 1953.

“Gianandrea and Stephen”. 56 pp. (short story; probably written after 1954).

“Third Programme, 8.20 p.m., 24.3.59” (seven-line poem making fun of Reginald Smith Brindle and Stephen Dodgson).

“Some Sacro-Sanct Modern Superstitions, with Comments”. 1962 (from the “Fruits of Misanthropy”). Reproduced in SCC, 327-30.

“Some Comments upon Remarks of Messrs. Stevenson and Ogdon in ‘Gambit’ (Summer no. 1965)”, 1 p. Remarks written in reaction to “Sorabji Symposium”, Gambit: Edinburgh University Review, Summer 1965: 4-12 (appended to letter, Sorabji to Ronald Stevenson, 29 November 1965).

“The Disbelief of an Anti-Democrat” (10-paragraph essay, undated (1972?) {3/F.3}. Nos. 3 and 10 reproduced in SCC, 330 n. 28.

“Personal and Private Footnote (for the eye of one or two individual friends only) to Francis Guercio: The Sicilian Temperament”. Undated, ca. 1973. 1 p.

“The Sicilian Temperament”. 2 typed pars. followed by 2 handwritten pars., given to Alistair Hinton in 1973.

“A Footnote to One Sicilian Temperament!”, 1 p., written for and given to Alistair Hinton in 1974.

“The Wine of Jami, a quasi-Sufi fragment for a most dear and precious friend” [Alistair Hinton]. Christmas 1975. 1 p.

Undated Essays

“Christopher à Becket Williams — An Appreciation by Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji”, 1 p.

“Concert Going Memories”, 8 pp. Written at the latest on 19 July 1964 {2/F.5}.

“Four hundred years of a sustained and organised campaign of calumny...”, 1 par.

“Francis George Scott” [carbon typescript copy of brief piece about Francis George Scott, beginning with “Some years ago, Professor Denis Saurat, introducing a recital of songs of Francis George Scott ...”], 1 p. Sorabji wrote following the title: “This was asked for by the Scottish B.B.C. at the time of the symposium or homage to FGS a few years since but not used by them as I refused to allow it to be emasculated in any way. Of course they didn[’]t like THAT!” {8/F.4}.

“Imaginary Conversation between a Langham Place Louse and a Certain Other”. 1 p., typescript (in capital letters throughout); found among the copies of letters from Sorabji to Mervyn Vicars owned by the Sorabji Archive (between one letter dated 11 November 1954 and another dated 16 July 1971).

“Meeting with Busoni”. 1 p. (after 1919).

Note in Sorabji’s hand (in pencil), (possibly purporting to be) by someone else, regarding the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra [no. 5] (1920; 144 pp.), 2 pp.

“The Prejudice against the French...”, 1 par.

‘The Reign of Quantity’ in Music”, 6 pp.

“Some little way after the Witches Scene in Macbeth”, signed Guglielmus Non Poeta (eight-line poem making fun of Reginald Smith Brindle).

“W. E. Ottaway of Corfe Castle (A tribute by an old friend)”. 1 p.