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John Cowper Powys Manuscripts and Papers Powys, Littleton A. -- Death and burial
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Letters from Lucy Penny

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.

Letters from Marian Powys

Sixteen letters and one telegram, 1954, to John Cowper Powys from his sister Marian Powys, mostly containing personal news and news of family and friends, including the death of John Cowper Powys's son Littleton Aflred Powys, the birth of Marian's second grandchild, and John Cowper Powys and Phyllis Playter's plans to move from Corwen. Enclosures comprise an ink drawing by Christopher, Marian's grandson.

Letters to Huw Menai (photocopies)

Photocopies of sixty letters, 1948-1952, 1954, from John Cowper Powys to the poet Huw Menai (Huw Owen Williams), including two letters, 1952, dictated by John Cowper Powys to Phyllis Playter. The letters include references to works in progress, health matters, house-hunting in Blaenau Ffestiniog, and family news, including the death of Phyllis Playter's mother in 1953 and of Powys's son Littleton Alfred in 1954. Enclosed with one letter is a photocopy of a letter of invitation to an official lunch from the Mayor of Merthyr Tydfil to Huw Menai (f. 111). Some of the letters are illustrated with Powys's ink drawings, which include caricatures of himself and of Huw Menai, the latter sometimes depicted as a sea-serpent. Together with four poems by Huw Menai, one of which (dated 23rd February 1956) is dedicated to John Cowper Powys and includes notes on the poem.

Letters to Jill Olson and Bernard O'Neill (photocopies)

Photocopies of forty letters, 1947-1948, 1951-1960 and undated, from John Cowper Powys to Jill Olson and one photocopied letter, 1947, to Jill Olson's father, Powys's close friend Bernard O'Neill (f. 1), together with a photocopy of an enclosed printed publication notice for Powys's literary study of Rabelais (1948) (f. 8-verso). The letters to Jill Olson contain references to the deaths in 1947 of Bernard O'Neill and of Powys's sister-in-law Elizabeth Powys (née Myers) and to the onset and progression of the neural disease which afflicted Powys's son Littleton Alfred, leading to his death in 1954, while the letter to Bernard O'Neill mentions the latter's failing health and that Powys had begun the final chapters of "my Romance of the Dark Ages" (i.e. his novel Porius, published in 1951).

Littleton Alfred Powys miscellanea

Miscellaneous material of or relating to Father Littleton Alfred Powys, son of John Cowper Powys. They comprise Littleton Alfred's baptismal certificate, [1914]; his Declaration of Ordination, 1927, 1928; birthday greetings to him from his mother Margeret Powys, 1930; a press cutting relating to his service as army chaplain during the Second World War; a holograph copy of his poem 'The Sound'; four photographs showing a procession of nuns and children from Nympsfield Orphanage, Dursley, Gloucestershire, 1950 (with notes on dorse by Littleton Alfred); an undated photograph of Dinah White, close friend of Littleton Alfred, with Dinah's name inscribed on the back cover in Phyllis Playter's hand; press obituaries (one in Welsh) of Littleton Alfred Powys, [1954], including one taken from The Beda Review; an envelope containing an embroidered handkerchief and photograph [?of Littleton Alfred], undated, the envelope inscribed 'From Littleton Alfred's Silver Box' in Phyllis Playter's hand; a copy, in the hand of Littleton Charles Powys (Littleton Alfred's uncle), of a letter from Dinah White, dated 22 August 1954, to Littleton Charles, together with typescript notes by Littleton Charles on Littleton Alfred's poem 'Ode to the West Wind', including public response to the work (see also NLW MS 24061D); and a printed copy of Littleton Alfred's poem 'Ode to the West Wind', at the back of which is inserted a press cutting from The Listener, 24 June 1954, relating to Theodore Francis Powys's possible influence on Dylan Thomas's 'Under Milk Wood'. There is a note in Morine Krissdottir's hand on f. 8.