Muriel Spark's ration book for 1953-1954.
Her ration book and a 'Persons with Small Incomes' leaflet tell of Muriel Spark's financial struggles from 1944 through to 1953.
A typescript curriculum vitae in the Spark archive at the National Library also gives a glimpse into living conditions around this time:
'… took up full-time literary work. First publisher went bankrupt. Second publisher also went bankrupt. Lived on tinned soup, and did fine on it, until I found a third publisher, who was solvent, to take the books. Have rather gone off soup since.'