Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1923-1987. (Creation)
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File
Extent and medium
1 box.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Emlyn Williams (1905-1987) from Mostyn, Flintshire, was an actor, writer and playwright of international renown. He was born as George Emlyn Williams and started using the name Emlyn Williams in 1927. With the assistance of his French teacher, Sarah Grace Cooke (d. 1964), he won a scholarship to Christ Church College, Oxford, in 1923 (the events were later fictionalised in 'The Corn is Green'). Upon graduating, he pursued a successful acting career, appearing on the stage in 'The Frightened Lady', and becoming a mainstay of the British film industry in the 1930s, working on Hitchcock's 'Jamaica Inn' and other films, writing and appearing in 'The Last Days of Dolwyn' (1949). He wrote and produced numerous stage plays, including 'A Murder Has Been Arranged' (1930), 'Night Must Fall' (1935), 'The Corn is Green' (1938), 'The Wind of Heaven' (1945), and 'Accolade' (1951), and adaptations of Turgenev's 'A Month in the Country' (1957), Ibsen's 'The Master Builder' (1964), and created one-man shows from the works of Saki, Dylan Thomas and Charles Dickens; many of these were reworked as TV plays and films. His stage appearances continued in London, New York and elsewhere. He continued to make TV and film appearances from the 1950s into the 1980s, notably in 'The L-shaped Room' (1962), and 'Emlyn Williams as Charles Dickens' (1983). He also wrote 'George, An Early Autobiography' (1961), 'Emlyn: an early autobiography, 1927-1935' (1974), a non-fiction account of the Moors Murders, 'Beyond Belief' (1967), and the novels 'Headlong' (1980) and 'Dr Crippen's Diary' (1987). He was married to Mary Marjorie (Molly) Carus-Wilson (née O'Shann) (d. 1970) in 1935, and had two sons, Alan and Brook. He was awarded the CBE in 1962. He had many actor friends, including Richard Burton, Noël Coward, John Gielgud, Sybil Thorndike and Lillian Gish.
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Mrs Janet M. Swinnerton; Somerset; Purchase; October 2005; 0200512325.
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Letters and postcards, 1923-1987, sent by Emlyn Williams to Miss Hilda Morris and Miss Dorothy Swinnerton in Abergavenny, two of his teachers at Holywell County School, together with a copy of a script by him: 'Emlyn Williams as Saki', 1977, programme of the ceremony of his conferement of the freedom of the Borough of Delyn, 1982, and signed theatre programmes and newspaper cuttings of theatre reviews and his autobiography George : an early autobiography (London, 1961).
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Conditions governing access
Readers consulting modern papers in the National Library of Wales are required to abide by the conditions set out in information provided when applying for their Readers' Tickets, whereby the reader shall become responsible for compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998 in relation to any processing by them of personal data obtained from modern records held at the Library.
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Usual copyright laws apply.
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Note
Preferred citation: NLW ex 2395.
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Dates of creation revision deletion
Language(s)
- English