Few of the public could quote a line of Siegfried Sassoon's poetry. A sizeable fraction, if told that he was a “famous” First World War poet, would assume that someone with a name like that fought for the Kaiser.

He didn't, of course. He's our third best WW1 versifier, after Wilfred Owen and Isaac Rosenberg, and a short neck ahead of Rupert Brooke. Unlike them, he lived: writing no poetry of interest (but some fine autobiographical novels) in his long civilian life. He can claim to be the bravest of the soldier poets, both against the Hun and the doltish commanders on his own side (Sassoon's most memorable act was to throw his Military Cross ribbon into the Mersey).

His family has now released for sale some of Sassoon's private papers. Cambridge University (not everyone's idea of a poverty-stricken institution) is seeking to raise, from outside sources, apparently, £1.25 million to secure them. Max Egremont, Sassoon's biographer (who has picked all the cherries from the papers for his excellent book), warns that “American libraries are keen to buy them”. It would, he thinks, be a “tragedy” for them to leave our shores.

The idea of Americans filching our “literary heritage” always raises British dander. But, as anyone who works with primary materials knows, they treat our literary heritage very well - better than us, in many ways.

If, as is possible (and, in my view, wholly desirable), the Sassoon papers go to Texas, California or New York, the libraries that acquire them will give British scholars handsome fellowships to examine them. They will be meticulously catalogued and conserved. Cambridge, I suspect, will not cough up the price of a cheap day return from London (“only 45 minutes”, Lord Egremont points out, hopefully). For a country holding on to the Elgin Marbles to call the export of a trunk full of Sassoonery a “tragedy” is, surely, excessive.

There are larger considerations. This country produces ten times as many PhD students in literature than there are university jobs for the poor sods. To put a million-plus to good use, endow a couple of lectureships for young scholars in First World War poetry. That way you generate scholarship, rather than simply enshrining a set of manuscripts that will be consulted every time a blue moon hoves over Trinity College.

Increasingly, manuscript materials are available online and, for most purposes, that's quite adequate. Research money is always the easiest thing to cut. If there's a million spare, put it where it will do most good. And thank the Americans for taking such good care of our literary heritage.

John Sutherland is Emeritus Professor of English at University College London

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