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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 Also included are heavily worked drafts of unpublished poems (NLW MS 23672E, ff. 57-60 and ff. 135-137 verso, 138 verso, 139 verso-140, inverted text; NLW MS 23673E, ff. 146 recto-verso, 147 verso, 154 recto-verso,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.

A sample copy, [1929], of part of a projected printed book by Ezra Pound, to be called 'The Complete Works of Guido Cavalcanti', containing also four autograph poems and a prose fragment by Dylan Thomas, [1936]-[early 1940s], and two typescript poems by Vernon Watkins, [c. 1939]. Pound's book was intended for publication in 1929 but was abandoned, with only the first 56 pages printed, when the Aquila Press went bankrupt. The present volume appears to be a sample copy, of which two similar ones are recorded (see Donald Gallup, Ezra Pound: A Bibliography (Charlottesville, 1983), p. 153), consisting of the first two gatherings only (ff. 2-9) and filled out with blank leaves (ff. 10-74). The original Aquila Press fragments were later incorporated into the composite work Guido Cavalcanti Rime, ed. by Ezra Pound (Genoa, [1932]).
The Dylan Thomas poems are 'Then was my neophyte', [1936] (f. 11) (published in Twenty-five Poems (London, 1936), pp. 40-41), 'We lying by seasand', [1937x1939] (f. 74 verso) (first published in Poetry (Chicago), 49.4 (January 1937), 183, and collected in The Map of Love (London, 1939), p. 8), 'Paper and sticks', [early 1940s] (tipped in on f. 12) (first published in Seven, 6 (Autumn 1939), 6, and collected in Deaths and Entrances (London, 1946), p. 23), and 'Once below a time', [early 1940s] (tipped in on ff. 13-14) (first published in Life and Letters Today, 24.31 (March 1940), 274-275; see Collected Poems 1934-1952 (London, [1952]), pp. 132-133); the prose fragment (tipped in on f. 15) is the end of 'One Warm Saturday', [1938], the last story in Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog (London, 1940), pp. 253-254. The two Vernon Watkins poems, 'The windows', 1939, and 'A bronze head', [c. 1939], are apparently unpublished (tipped in on ff. 16-17). A dried leaf found loose within the volume has been placed in an archival sleeve.

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).

Miscellaneous prose and verse submitted for publication in The Rhyl Advertiser and other papers, adjudications, etc., the contributors including Meredith J. Hughes, Robert Parry ('Robin Ddu Eryri'), John Williams ('Glanmor'), Richard Williams, (Celynog, Newtown), Morris Williams ('Nicander'), Samuel Roberts ('S.R.'), etc.

Letters, 1926-1968, to John Cowper Powys and Phyllis Playter from various correspondents, including Gerald Brenan (16, including one poem), 1957-1968; Maurice Browne (20), 1930-1954; James Hanley (15), [c. 1955]-1967; Claude Houghton (5), 1955-1956; Edgar Lee Masters (9), 1928-1945; Henry Miller (7), 1957-1962; and Ralph Shirley (18), 1940-1946; together with a few miscellaneous letters, including an undated draft letter from John Cowper Powys concerning literary censorship in America.

Some hundred letters, 1929-80 (correspondents N-W), to Ceri and Frances Richards, many of them concerned with their work as artists. The correspondents include John Ormond (11) [?1940s]-1976 (with typescript and autograph drafts and fair copies of poems, and typescript text of a radio broadcast by him, 1954, entitled 'Rest and Unrest: the Art of Ceri Richards'), Victor Pasmore (1) 1969, Peter Pears (8) [1960s-70s], Sir John Rothenstein (2) 1958-68, Roberto Sanesi (12) 1961-76, Stephen Spender (2) 1962, Graham Sutherland (3) [?1941]-56, Vernon Watkins (10) 1960-7 (see note 544, below), with one autograph and one typescript poem.

Miscellaneous papers of Berta Ruck, 1902-[early 1970s], including autograph and typescript drafts of verse, [1920s]-[1930s], many in multiple copies (ff. 1-123); lecture notes, [c. 1935]-[c. 1945] (ff. 124-224); a short story, 'April Folly', [c. 1935], apparently related to her novel Half Past Kissing Time (London, 1936) (ff. 225-248); and some thirteen letters to the author in English and German, [1903x1904]-1971 (ff. 264-283).
The correspondents include Clement Scott, [1903x1904] (f. 264), Marda Vanne, 9 October 1936 (f. 280), Harold Nicolson, 14 June 1962 (f. 281, on the death of his wife, Vita Sackville-West), and Quentin Bell, September 1971 (ff. 282-283, concerning his biography of Virginia Woolf); there are also three letters, 1929, from 'Harry', her Austrian lover (ff. 265-272, mostly in German). Also included are two leaves from Ruck's journal, June 1930 (ff. 249-250); reminiscences, [early 1970s], of Lydia Lopokova (ff. 251-259) with a photograph of her, [?1920s] (f. 260); press cuttings of an article by Ruck, September 1936 (f. 261), and of two articles relating to Virginia Woolf, 1972 (ff. 262-263); W. R. Oliver's school report at Shrewsbury School, 1929 (f. 284); programme for 'My Lady Molly' at the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, 1902 (ff. 285-286); and page proofs for Chapter 8 of A Smile for the Past (London, 1935) (ff. 287-292).

Notebook of Berta Ruck, October 1931-August 1932, containing journal entries, including an account of her stay in Vienna, October-November 1931 (ff. 2-31), notes for fiction, verses and sketches by the author and a record of her dreams. Some twenty-seven letters, postcards and telegrams from family and friends, photographs, cuttings and other ephemera have been pasted in.
The correspondents include Oliver Onions, [October 1931] (f. 21), Doris Langley Moore, December 1931-February [1932] (ff. 53, 87), Marie Belloc-Lowndes, [1932] (f. 54 verso), Marda Vanne, [1932] (ff. 70 verso, 76a), and Ferdinand Deutelmoser, October 1931, April 1932 (ff. 73, 91). The volume also contains ink sketches (ff. 60, 70, 71, 81 verso) and verse (ff. 47 verso, 66, 68, 93 verso) by Ruck, and a German translation by Deutelmoser of another of her verses (f. 25 verso).

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).

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, 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.

Over a hundred and thirty letters, 1962-1989, in English and Welsh, to Meic Stephens from various correspondents (surnames A-Jones). The letters, some of which include fair copies of published poems, are chiefly concerned with contemporary writing in Wales in both English and Welsh and with the recipient's work as editor of a number of volumes in this field. The correspondents include Ruth Bidgood (2, and one poem) 1985-6, Euros Bowen (4) 1978-87, Anthony Conran (8) 1962-79, Bryan Martin Davies (3, with English translations of three poems) 1974-86, Islwyn Ffowc Elis (1) 1971, Dr Gwynfor Evans (4) 1987-9, Raymond Garlick (36, and two poems) 1967-89, Emyr Humphreys (5) 1969-86, A. G. Prys-Jones (12) 1968-83, and Bobi Jones (7, and two poems) 1976-87.

Forty-eight letters, 1934-1980, to John Petts from various correspondents including David Jones (7) 1954-1956, Professor Gwyn Jones (5, together with a draft introduction for a projected but apparently unpublished volume entitled 'Woodcuts of Wales'), 1947-1949, Alun Lewis (15) [1940]-1943, and Gwyn Williams, Trefenter (2) 1949-1951; also included is one letter, 1942, to Alun Lewis from Huw Menai, enclosing three autograph poems.

Two hundred and twenty-nine autograph letters and postcards, and a few Christmas cards, 1873-1903, addressed principally to George Eyre Evans, the material being primarily of Unitarian interest.
Included among the correspondents are Sir Edward Anwyl; Walter de Gray Birch; John Humphreys Davies, Cwrtmawr; David Lewis Evans, Llanybydder; Walter Jenkin Evans, Carmarthen; Rees Jenkin Jones, Aberdare; William Rathbone; and Thomas Francis Roberts. Also included are a copy of a testimonial, 1873, to George Eyre Evans from William Thomas ('Gwilym Marles'); printed poems in English by Evan Ceredig Jones, 1901-1903; and an index to the entire volume prepared by George Eyre Evans in January 1905.

Notebook, 1905-1907, of T. Gwynn Jones, mostly written in pencil, used by him during his stay in Egypt during the Winter of 1905-6 as a diary and for composing English poetry.
The volume contains diary entries for his voyage to Egypt, 21 October-5 November 1905 (ff. 22 verso, 23-28 rectos only), the beginning of his stay there, in Alexandria, Cairo and Helouan, 6 November-23 December 1905 (ff. 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34-37), and the return voyage, 28 April-13 May 1906 (ff. 21 verso-22). Also included are some eighteen poems in English, dated 4 December 1905-6 April 1906, mostly drafts, some crossed through or heavily revised, the majority being love poems to his wife (ff. 2 verso-5, 6, 7-17, 18-19, 20, 21). Some are published: 'The Ferry' (f. 7 recto-verso) in David Jenkins, Thomas Gwynn Jones: Cofiant (Denbigh, 1973), p. 169, 'I saw thee' (ff. 8 verso-9) in ibid., p. 109, and 'A Memory' (f. 10 verso) in the Western Mail, 30 September 1920, p. 4; while 'The Rising Sun' [published as 'Come my love'] (f. 11) and 'I will come to thee' (f. 13 verso) were set to music by Robert Bryan (both scores published 1921). Three further verses, October 1905 and February 1907, are in Welsh (ff. 23 verso-24, 37 verso). Eight pages are written in shorthand (ff. 17 verso, 24 verso-31 verso, versos only), these remain undeciphered by the cataloguer. Jones's travel book Y Mor Canoldir a'r Aifft (Caernarfon, 1912), which relates incidents recorded in the diary, such as the Coptic wedding (ff. 34-35 verso), is based mostly on his letters to his wife rather than on the present manuscript.

Manuscripts, typescripts, and press cuttings of poetry, largely in free metres, by John Bryn Evans ('Peiran'), London. The compositions belong approximately to the period 1925-1936. Among the titles are 'Eisteddfod [Genedlaethol] Abertawe 1926', 'Pont ar Fynach (Devil's Bridge)', 'Y Rheidol', 'Yr Ystwyth', 'Nant Peiran', 'Eifion Wyn', 'Aberystwyth', 'Dr. T. Charles Williams', 'Hafod Uchtryd', 'Beriah Gwynfe Evans', 'Yr Athro David Jenkins, Mus. Bac.', 'R. S. Hughes', 'Teifi', 'Strata Florida (Ystrad Fflur)', 'Cadair Idris', 'Sir Ellis Griffith Bart.', 'Islwyn', 'Ceiriog', 'A Tribute to A. G. Prys-Jones', 'Y Prifathro y Dr. Thomas Rees, M.A.', 'In Memory of the late Rev. J. Cynddylan Jones, D.D.', etc.

A holograph copy of the poem 'Leisure' by W. H. Davies, signed and dated 8 May 1914.
The poem was first published in William H. Davies, Songs of Joy and Others (London, 1911) and thereafter appeared in various collections and anthologies, including William H. Davies, Collected Poems (London, 1916), The Essential W. H. Davies (London, 1951) and The Complete Poems of W. H. Davies (London, 1963). This fair copy was possibly written whilst the poet was in Gloucestershire visiting friends among the Dymock poets (see Selected letters of Robert Frost, ed. by Lawrance Thompson (London, 1965), pp. 122-124).