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Archival description
Berta Ruck archive Nesbit, E. (Edith), 1858-1924.
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Notebook

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.

Autobiographical writings

Manuscript and typescript drafts by Berta Ruck, [1955]-[1974x1978], of chapters of projected and published autobiographical works, mainly concerned with her life in Wales.
They include a manuscript draft of the first chapter of An Asset to Wales (London, 1970), [?1969] (ff. 1-24); drafts, mainly typescript, of various chapters for projected works entitled 'Welsh Harlequinade' and 'Fanfare for Wales', [1974x1978] (ff. 25-137); a typescript poem entitled 'Stair-case Remorse', [1970x1978] (f. 138); a typescript of various fragments of fiction and autobiographical prose, [1970x1978] (ff. 139-144); a cutting of an article by Ruck, 'A Golden Prince Came to the Castle', [1955] (f. 145); and a cut-out watercolour sketch of a young man (f. 146). There are references to N. C. Hunter (ff. 47-50), Stephen Peet, producer of the 1970 television documentary featuring Ruck (ff. 106-120), and to E. Nesbit (ff. 141-142).