Dangos 456 canlyniad

Letters to John Cowper Powys from his sister Gertrude Powys.

Letters to John Cowper Powys arranged alphabetically, A-E. The correspondents are as follows: Tetsuo Akiyama (5), 1961-1964 + 1 undated Christmas card; Margaret Armstrong (1), 1953; Avice Maud Bowbyes (1), 1960 (reference to the death of the novelist, poet and playwright Reginald Hunter); Nellie Browne (1), [1920s]; Adrian Bury (2), 1946; A. B. Clinkscales (1), 1957; Benjamin De Casseres (1), 1937; Helen Dreiser (1) [?incomplete], undated; P. [?W.] Drinkwater, of the Home Office (1), 1937; Malcolm Elwin (2), 1944, 1960; and Emily, family nurse (1), undated.

Papers once in the possession of Francis Llewellyn Powys, nephew of John Cowper Powys, relating to the wills of John Cowper Powys and Phyllis Playter and to the literary executorship, copyright, translation rights and royalies, etc. of John Cowper Powys's estate. The material includes contracts, correspondence, and notes and accounts concerning proposed publication and translation of, and performance rights, copyright and royalties relating to, the works of John Cowper Powys, Theodore Francis Powys and Philippa (Katie) Powys. The literary executorship of both John Cowper Powys and Theodore Francis Powys was in the hands of Phyllis Player until she transferred it to John Cowper Powys's nephew (and Theodore's son) Francis Llewellyn Powys by deed of gift in 1972; Francis, in turn, transferred it by deed of gift to his son John Francis Cowper Powys in 1994.

Letters to Phyllis Playter from Mabel Powys, first wife of Littleton Charles Powys (1), [1940] (with a short note from Littleton Charles Powys); John Cowper Powys's sister, Philippa (Katie) Powys (8), [1945], [1948], 1957, 1960 (one letter, 1960, containing a note from Katie's sister, Lucy Penny; Isobel Powys Marks, daughter of John Cowper Powys's brother, Albert Reginald (Bertie) Powys (13 letters and 2 postcards), 1946, 1949, 1959, 1963, 1964, 1971 and undated; Lucy Penny's daughter, Mary Casey (16 letters and 2 postcards), 1949, 1953, 1958-1963, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1972 (reference to scattering John Cowper Powys's ashes on Chesil Beach and the death of Llewelyn Powys's wife, Alyse Gregory), and Mary's husband, Gerard (1), [?1980] (refers to the death of Mary Casey); John Cowper Powys's niece, Eleanor Powys (1), 1949; John Cowper Powys's son, Littleton Alfred Powys (1), 1949 (enclosing four photographs of Littleton Alfred, one taken with John Cowper Powys, and three of which are inscribed by Littleton Alfred Powys, with a note by Powys biographer Morine Krissdottir on f. 51) and an undated photograph of St Dominic's Church, Dursley, Gloucestershire, inscribed on the dorse by Littleton Alfred; John Cowper Powys's brother, Littleton Charles Powys (1), 1949; Stephen Powys Marks, son of Isobel (1), 1959; John Cowper Powys's sister-in-law, Faith Powys (4), 1962, 1963, 1967; Marian Powys's son, Peter Powys Grey (2), 1963, 1966; Antonia Goldhill, daughter of Isobel (4), 1963 and undated); John Francis Cowper Powys, grandson of Theodore Francis Powys (3 letters and 1 postcard), 1967, 1971, 1972 (references to his marriage and including ink drawings illustrating his new home and possessions, and mention of the death of Violet Powys, John's grandmother); John Cowper Powys's brother, William Ernest (Willie) Powys (1), 1967; and Theodore Francis Powys's daughter-in-law, Sally Powys, wife of Francis Llewellyn Powys (5), 1967, 1978, 1980 and undated.

Twenty-two letters and one postcard, 1944, 1946-1947, 1949, 1952-1953, 1957-1960, to John Cowper Powys from his niece Mary Casey, daughter of Lucy Penny. The letters mostly contain personal and family news, with references also to the deaths of novelist and journalist Theodore Dreiser in 1945 (f. 8) and of Joan Lambert Wilkinson, wife of the writer Louis Wilkinson (f. 39), in 1957, Mary's husband Gerard Casey's ill-health in 1959 (ff. 42-46 verso), and Gerard and Mary's response to John Cowper Powys's novel Homer and the Aether (1959) (f. 44). One letter includes a note to John Cowper Powys from Gerard Casey (f. 16-verso). Enclosed with one letter (ff. 27-32) are photographs of Gerard Casey and Mary's uncle William (Willie) Powys and his sons Gilfrid and Charles Powys and of scenes of rural life in Kenya.

Sixteen letters and one postcard, 1939-1961 and undated, to John Cowper Powys from his niece Mary Casey's husband Gerard, who addresses John Cowper Powys as 'dear God-Uncle'. The letters contain mostly personal and family news.

Thirty-four letters and six postcards, 1953-[?1963] and undated, to John Cowper Powys from his sister, Lucy Penny, containing mostly family news, including the death of John Cowper Powys's son Littleton Alfred in 1954 and the final illness and death of Lucy's and John Cowper Powys's brothers Theodore Francis (1953) and Littleton Charles (1955). Two of the letters are written from Allington Sanatorium, Bridport. Enclosures comprise one letter to Lucy from her husband's cousin, Nellie Hounsell, three letters and one note to Phyllis Playter from Lucy, one letter to Lucy from her daughter, Mary Casey, and one letter to Phyllis Playter from Philippa (Katie) Powys. Included as part of this correspondence and filed within an envelope are one undated letter and two undated postcards which pre-date the deaths of Theodore, Littleton Alfred and Littleton Charles but which cannot be placed with any certainty within the chronology of the collection.

Four notebooks and a series of disbound notebooks and loose leaves, [c. 1900]-[c. 1902], containing parts of a projected first novel by John Cowper Powys comprising substantial drafts of a romance set on the Sussex Downs; together with numerous, shorter fragments of narrative, mainly passages of prolix theological and philosophical discussion, and Rabelaisian fantasy, involving characters based on the author's friends. Also included are heavily worked drafts of unpublished poems (NLW MS 23672E, ff. 57-60 and ff. 135-137 verso, 138 verso, 139 verso-140, inverted text; NLW MS 23673E, ff. 146 recto-verso, 147 verso, 154 recto-verso, 155 verso, 156 verso-60 verso, 161 verso-162, inverted text; NLW MS 23676E, ii, ff. 250 verso-251, 253 verso-255, 259 verso, 260 verso, 261-262 verso, 263 verso, 264 verso-265 verso, 266 verso, 267 verso-268 verso, 269 verso, 270 verso, inverted text); and notes on Shakespeare's The Tempest, Macbeth, Richard III and The Taming of the Shrew (NLW MS 23673E, ff. 148-153 verso, inverted text), possibly for use in Powys's lecturing work.

Over two hundred letters, 1924-1967, from Alyse Gregory, widow of John Cowper Powys's brother, Llewelyn Powys, to Phyllis Playter. There are frequent references to family and friends, and to the publication and preservation of the correspondence and literary manuscripts of John Cowper Powys and Llewelyn Powys.

Some sixty-two letters and cards, 1955, from Littleton Charles Powys to John Cowper Powys. Also included is a letter, 1 May [1955], to John Cowper Powys from his sister Lucy [Penny] (f. 38).

Some one hundred and five letters and cards, 1954, mostly from Littleton Charles Powys to John Cowper Powys, with four from Littleton to Phyllis Playter (ff. 97-98, 168, 193-195). Also included is a letter, 16 May 1954, to Littleton from Dinah White (f. 80).

Some thirty-nine letters and cards, 1953, mostly from Littleton Charles Powys to John Cowper Powys, with one from Littleton to Phyllis Playter (f. 20). Also included is a letter, 9 August 1953, to Littleton from his nephew Littleton Alfred Powys (in the hand of his amanuensis Dinah White) (f. 50).

Some seventy-seven letters and cards, 1951-1952, mostly from Littleton Charles Powys to John Cowper Powys, with six from Littleton to Phyllis Playter (ff. 17, 33-35, 115-116, 136-138, 155, 187-188).

Some eighty-nine letters and cards, 1949-1950, mostly from Littleton Charles Powys to John Cowper Powys, with five from Littleton to Phyllis Playter (ff. 14-16, 74-75, 128, 139, 151).

Some thirty-four letters and cards, 1946-1947, from Littleton Charles Powys to John Cowper Powys.

Some eighty-one letters and cards, 1943-1945, from Littleton Charles Powys to John Cowper Powys.

Some forty-three letters and cards, 1942, from Littleton Charles Powys to John Cowper Powys.

Some eighty-nine letters and cards, 1940-1941, from Littleton Charles Powys to John Cowper Powys.

Some one hundred and five letters and cards, 1925, 1935-1939, mostly from Littleton Charles Powys, headmaster of Sherborne Preparatory School, 1905-1923, to his elder brother, John Cowper Powys, with two from Littleton to Phyllis Playter (ff. 137-138, 145-146).

Eleven notebooks, [1970s-1980s], containing material mostly relating to the proposed publication of John Cowper Powys's letters and diaries. Nine of the notebooks are in Francis Llewellyn Powys's hand, one (ff. 1-12) bearing the title 'My Dearest Sea-Eagle. Selected Letters from J.C.P. to His sister Katie. NOTES', the rest containing draft letters relating to proposed publication (many addressed to representatives of Laurence Pollinger Ltd, literary agents, London), a draft of The Quiet Man of Dorset (ff. 258-260) (Francis's portrait of his father Theodore Francis Powys) and a draft of an unnamed work by Francis Llewellyn Powys (ff. 260 verso-290, about half of which is inverted text), and rough arithmetical calculations (presumably related to publishing costs). Many of the notebooks contain rough sketches and drawings, mainly depicting female figures, and some leaves bear evidence of watercolour paint mixing. A photographic negative depicting a crowd of people at the seaside which was originally loose inside one of the notebooks is now inserted at f. 156. Two of the eleven notebooks, containing indexes to the proposed publications, are possibly in the hand of Sally Powys, wife of Francis Llewellyn Powys.