Notebook of Berta Ruck, May 1930-March 1931, containing journal entries, including accounts of her visits to Sweden, July 1930 (ff. 14-22), Germany, July, November 1930 (ff. 22 verso-28 verso, 69 verso-81 verso), Vienna, Austria, July-August, November-December 1930 (ff. 28 verso-42 verso, 82-91), and the French Riviera, August-September 1930 (ff. 44-61), and notes for fiction. Some fifty-two letters, cards and telegrams from family and friends, photographs, cuttings, programmes and other ephemera have been pasted in.
The correspondents include Marda Vanne, June-[December] 1930 (ff. 4, 62, 91), Oliver Onions, July-[August] 1930 (ff. 13, 30, 53), Alec Waugh, 22 June 1930 (f. 38), Hermon Ould, 30 September 1930 (f. 65 verso), Vicki Baum, 4 November 1930 (f. 78), Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies, [December] 1930 (f. 91), Norman Haire, [December] 1930 (f. 114 verso), Vita Sackville-West, 3 November 1930 (f. 121), and Cynthia Stockley, [December] 1930 (f. 129). The volume contains sketches and drawings (ff. 2 verso, 28 verso-29, 48-49, 87, 92 verso, 109, 123 verso) and poetry (ff. 67 verso, 73a-b, 88, 91-92 verso, 94 verso, 101 verso) by Ruck. The photographs include three of her with her sons (inside front cover, ff. 54, 60; the latter was published in A Story-Teller Tells the Truth (London, 1935), facing p. 166). Among the friends and acquaintances referred to in the volume are Ernst Hanfstaengl (79 verso, 80 verso-81 verso) and the writers Rebecca West (ff. 45 verso, 50 verso -51), Geoffrey Moss (ff. 49 verso-50, 54 verso, 57 verso), Vicky Baum (f. 71 verso) and Otto Friedländer (ff. 82 verso, 83, 84).

Notebook of Berta Ruck, Aberdyfi, May 1945-December 1946, containing journal entries including comments on the end of the Second World War and its aftermath and notes for fiction, especially the novel Surprise Engagement (London, 1946) (here called 'They are engaged', ff. 27-73 passim). Some one hundred and forty-six letters, cards and telegrams, mostly from family and friends, January 1945-September 1946, cuttings and other ephemera have been pasted in.
The correspondents include Tony Thorne, January 1945-March 1946 (ff. 4 verso, 12 verso, 17a, 26 verso, 44, 56 verso, 65 verso, 73verso-74 verso, 75 verso, 79 verso), Miriam L. Rothschild, 4 January 1945 (f. 6), Ronald Staples, May-June 1945 (ff. 6, 10 verso), J[oseph] P[eter] T[horp], 6 June 1945 (f. 10 verso), Alec Waugh, July 1945-April [1946] (ff. 22, 75 verso, 80), Vicki Baum, 20 August 1945 (f. 24 verso), Bernard Darwin, 28 August 1945 (f. 26a), Oliver Onions, September-December 1945 (ff. 34, 35, 59 verso), A. E. Chesterton, 26 October 1945 (f. 41), Nancy Rodd [ie. Mitford], 12 January 1946 (f. 43 verso), Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies, [11 November 1945] (f. 52 recto-verso), Marda Vanne, 11 November 1945 (f. 53), Osbert Sitwell, November-December 1945 (ff. 54 verso, 58 verso), Maurice Bowra, 22 December [1945] (f. 60 verso), Hermon Ould, 11 March 1946 (f. 74), Esmond Knight, [1946] (f. 75 verso), Ivor Brown, 20 August 1946 (f. 83 verso), Ambrose Heal, 16 September 1946 (f. 87), and C. A. Lejeune, 24 May [1946] (f. 89 verso). The volume contains references to the deaths of her friends Ménie Muriel FitzGerald (f. 1) and Edith Heal (f. 87), and conditions in London after VE Day (ff. 7, 8); also verse (f. 46) and an ink sketch (f. 51 verso) by Ruck. Pasted into the volume are 1945 General Election leaflets for Merioneth (ff. 17, 20 verso, 22), and photographs of Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies and Marda Vanne (f. 86).

Notebook of Berta Ruck, March-June 1931, containing journal entries including an account of a visit to Oxford, 16 May 1931 (ff. 28 verso-30), and notes for fiction and other work. Twenty-nine letters, postcards and telegrams, mostly from family and friends, February-June 1931, [December 1935], cuttings, photographs and ephemera have been pasted in.
The correspondents include Oliver Onions, April-May 1931 (ff. 34, 36 verso, 52), Robin Darwin, 20 March 1931 (f. 2 verso), Marda Vanne, 25 May 1931 (f. 8 verso), Alec Waugh, April 1931 (ff. 16 verso-17, 30 verso), and Doris Langley Moore, 12 May 1931 (f. 28); there are also four copy letters from Ruck to her father and others, March-April 1931, [December 1935] (ff. 1 recto-verso, 4-5, 14-15 verso, 38a-b). The volume also contains ink sketches (ff. 27, 30, 42, 44) and verses (ff. 20 verso, 32-33, 36, 40 verso, 44, 46) by Ruck. There are references to Doris Langley Moore's forthcoming biography of E. Nesbit (London, 1933) (ff. 25 verso, 28) and to Gwen Ffrangcon Davies (f. 40 verso). Besides a single copy letter there is no material dating from 1935 onwards (as alluded to on the front cover), presumably having being excised.

Notebook of Berta Ruck, July-August 1931, containing journal entries and notes on her visit to Vienna and Carinthia, Austria. Four letters, March 1931-September 1932 (ff. 10 verso, 18, 28, inside back cover), photographs and postcards, playbills and other ephemera have been pasted in.
The volume contains a photograph of Ruck (f. 15) and verse by her (ff. 1 verso, 4 verso). There are fragments of text on the stubs of ff. 13-14, 16-17, 21-28 and on the unfoliated stubs between ff. 17 and 18.

A notebook, originally perhaps used by Augustus John as a sketch-book, but containing poems by Arthur Symons, composed during his period of madness and written down, c. 1909, by his amanuensis, Agnes Tobin.

Typescript drafts, [1941x1942], of six poems by Brenda Chamberlain, sent by her to Alun Lewis. Two of the poems, 'Would it not move to pity ...' and 'Dead Ponies', were published in The Dublin Magazine, 16 (July-September 1941), pp. 7-10; the others are apparently unpublished.

Two holograph poems and an autobiographical sketch by Peggy Eileen Whistler ('Margiad Evans'), 1952, written for a special issue of Promenade: the weekly review for Cheltenham (no. 3, 26 July 1952). The poems are 'Epitaph' (f. 3) and 'The Shiny Crown' (f. 4). Also included is a printed copy of Promenade (ff. 5-14), including the sketch (ff. 12 verso, 13), 'Epitaph' (f. 14) and 'The Shiny Crown' (f. 14 verso).

A collection of holograph poems, 1953-1956, by Peggy Eileen Whistler ('Margiad Evans'), including 'The Country Churchyard' (1955) (f. 3), 'God's Love' (1953) (f. 4), 'Autumn' ([1956]) (f. 5), 'Bather' ([1953]) (f. 7), 'The Old Name' ([1953]) (f. 8), and 'Cherry Orchard in Bloom' (f. 9).
Other fragments, also in Whistler's hand, include a page of an original play 'Dear Desdemona' (f. 10) [cf. NLW MS 23373E & NLW, Margiad Evans MS 29], and an excerpt from the second part of her unfinished 'Widower's Tale' (ff. 11-14).

Drafts of eight poems by John Cowper Powys written for Phyllis Playter, most of them bearing the dedication 'to the T.T.', together with a pencilled caricature (f. 5) inscribed 'To my Valentine Feb 14 1949'.

Manuscript and typescript drafts, [c. 1946]-1956, of poems by Margiad Evans, including penultimate and final drafts of her first published volume of poetry, Poems from Obscurity (London, 1947). Drafts of other published poems, [1953]-[1956], include eleven sonnets published in A Candle Ahead (London, 1956), pp. 32-38 (ff. 71-81), 'The Sufferer' (f. 85; marked 'published in Saskatchewan'), and 'In memory of a little god' (ff. 98-105). Unpublished poems include 'Yesterday and Today' and 'Poem' (ff. 87-89), and 'Cassandra desolated' (ff. 91-97).

Autograph and typescript drafts and fair copies by Dannie Abse of the poems 'In the Theatre' (see Funland and Other Poems, 1973), 'Snake' (see Way Out in the Centre, 1981) and 'The Test' (see Collected Poems, 1977) with a printed version of 'Lunchtime', 1974; and drafts and fragments of autobiographical notes and essays, including 'Princeton Journal', 1973-1974, 'The Crowning of Kid Brother', c. 1977, and 'Sorry, Miss Crouch', all published in A Strong Dose of Myself (1983).

Holograph and typescript copies and cuttings of poetry by Idris Davies, among them being press and proof copies of The Angry Summer (London, 1943) and a press copy of Tonypandy and Other Poems (London, 1945) (vol. I); a typescript entitled 'The Valleys of My Fathers', with a revised copy entitled 'Gwalia My Song' (vol. II); and drafts of some 200 other poems.

A notebook containing love poetry with a few poems on loose sheets.

A presentation typescript copy by the author, H. W. Badley, Mold, afterwards of Hawarden, of a poem written in March, 1933, under the title of 'Y Gwir yn erbyn y byd. Here followeth ye (Poster) Prize Poem of ye Welsh National Eisteddfod, Wrexham, 1933. Dedicated, without permission, but with due respect, to the Appeals Committee. Not for competition.'

A collection of sonnets and other verse by Frederick Samwell Henderson (1857-1931). Typescript.

Manuscript and typescript poems, in Welsh and English, by the Rev. T. W. Llynfi Davies, including poems entered for competition at the Corwen Chair Eisteddfod, 1913, and the National Eisteddfod of Wales, Wrecsam, 1933, and Fishguard, 1936.

A volume containing autograph fair copies, [c. 1916], of fifteen poems by W. H. Davies, some of them apparently unpublished, submitted to James Guthrie for publication by the Pear Tree Press as a collection entitled 'Quiet Streams'; annotations have been added by Lord Kenyon.
A letter, 1916, from Davies to Guthrie, originally loose in the volume, has been tipped in on f. 16.

Eight typescript poems, [1970]-[1972], by R. S. Thomas, published in Poetry Wales, 6.1 (Summer 1970), 37-38, and ibid. 7.4 (Spring 1972), 9-14.
The poems are 'Vocation', [1970], 'Alma Mater', 'Dimensions', 'No', 'God's Story', 'The Hand', 'Ann Griffith' and 'Amen', [1972]. However, 'Saunders Lewis', also published in the Spring 1972 number, is not present.

An album containing pasted-in cuttings from newspapers and journals and other miscellaneous material by, or relating to, R. J. Derfel, 1855-1904, including manuscript and printed poetry; letters and cards to R. J. Derfel, including a letter, n.d., from Eliseus Williams ('Eifion Wyn'); and programmes and leaflets.