Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- [1962]-1980 (Creation)
Level of description
File
Extent and medium
82 ff.
Guarded and filed at NLW.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Saunders Lewis, dramatist, poet, historian and literary critic, was born in Wallasey, Cheshire to a family of prominent Welsh Calvinistic Methodists. He was educated at a boys's school in Liscard and at Liverpool University, where he studied English and French. His academic career was interrupted by the First World War, in which Lewis served with the South Wales Borderers, but he quickly resumed his studies at the end of the conflict, and, having graduated, worked as librarian in Glamorgan before taking up a post as lecturer in the Welsh department of the University College of Swansea. In 1925, Lewis was one of the pioneering figures involved in establishing the National Party of Wales (later known as Plaid Cymru) and was made President of the fledgeling organisation the following year. Having written about the Roman Catholic church for a number of years, in 1932 Lewis converted to the faith also practised by his wife Margaret. In 1936, Lewis, D. J. Williams and Lewis Valentine set fire to the Royal Airforce's Bombing School in Penyberth on the Lleyn Peninsula, an event which has gone down in the annals of Welsh history and which earned Lewis imprisonment in Wormwood Scrubs and dismissal from his lecturing post in Swansea. He was eventually appointed senior lecturer in Welsh at the University of Cardiff but retired in 1957 to devote his time to writing. Lewis's litarary output is prodigious and he is considered by many to be the most important Welsh literary and political figure of the twentieth century; it is considered that his radio address for 1962, Tynged yr Iaith, was the direct instigating force behind the establishment of the Welsh language movement Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg.
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Dylans Bookstore; Swansea; Purchase; August 1999; B1999/18.
Content and structure area
Scope and content
A typescript copy, [1962]-1979, of Saunders Lewis's Welsh play 'Excelsior', first published Swansea, 1980, with corrections in the author's hand (ff. 1-56); together with correspondence, 1980, in English and Welsh, of the publisher Christopher Davies, regarding its publication in view of the allegation, when broadcast in 1962, that it libelled the Rev. Llywelyn Williams, MP (ff. 57-81).
The typescript consists of pages from the original script, [1962], transmitted on BBC TV on St David's Day 1962 (ff. 5-16, 20-21, 42-51), interspersed with revised sections, [1979], for an abortive stage version (ff. 17-19, 22-41, 52-56), and the new Preface for the published volume, April 1980 (ff. 2-4). The correspondence consists of nineteen letters, April-October 1980, including copies and drafts, mostly between Saunders Lewis, Christopher Davies, Sir Alun Talfan Davies and Glyndwr Williams, brother of Llywelyn Williams. A cutting of Clive Betts' article, 'Saunders Lewis publishes play BBC abandoned' (Western Mail, 1 December 1980, p. 9), is on f. 82. The 1962 and 1980 versions of the play both appear in Dramâu Saunders Lewis: Y Casgliad Cyflawn, Cyfrol 2, ed. by Ioan M. Williams (Cardiff, 2000), pp. 273-414.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Readers consulting modern papers in the National Library of Wales are required to abide by the conditions noted on the 'Modern papers - data protection' form issued with their Readers' Tickets.
Conditions governing reproduction
Usual copyright laws apply.
Language of material
- English
- Welsh
Script of material
Language and script notes
Welsh, English.
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
Original title.
Note
Preferred citation: NLW MS 23785E.
Alternative identifier(s)
Virtua system control number
GEAC system control number
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Christopher Davies (Firm) (Subject)
- Davies, Christopher H. Talfan -- Correspondence. (Subject)
- Lewis, Saunders, 1893-1985. Excelsior. (Subject)
- Williams, Llywelyn, 1911-1965. (Subject)
- Davies, Christopher H. Talfan. (Subject)
- Davies, Alun Talfan, 1913-2000. (Subject)
- Williams, Glyndwr, 1915-2006. (Subject)
- Betts, Clive, 1943- (Subject)
- Lewis, Saunders, 1893-1985 -- Correspondence (Subject)
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Description follows NLW guidelines based on ISAD(G) 2nd ed.; AACR2; and LCSH
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
June 2010.
Language(s)
- English
Script(s)
Sources
Archivist's note
Description revised by Rhys Morgan Jones;