This is the first of two issues of the Sylvia Townsend Warner Journal with a particular focus on The Corner That Held Them. It includes two previously unpublished manuscripts from the Warner–Ackland Archive. The first of these consists of three pages of draft notes on the novel that Warner may have written for William Maxwell. The second is her unfinished sequel to the book. This is too long to print in a single issue of the Journal, so the first part is presented here and the second part will appear in the next issue, along with an essay by Adam Piette discussing the novel in relation to the Black Death and fascism.
Following on from last year’s Valentine Ackland special issue, we are pleased to be publishing David Trotter’s many-sided and original essay exploring the collaboration between Ackland and Warner in the 1930s. The Journal also includes the 2019 Warner Society Lecture delivered by the editor, Peter Swaab, in October 2019 on the subject of ‘Sylvia Townsend Warner: The Possibilities of Freedom’. It concludes with two affectionate tributes to Glen Cavaliero (1927–2019), one of our founder members and for many years the referee for articles in the Journal.