Letters to John Pikoulis from various correspondents
- AI/1
- Ffeil / File
- 1972-2002
Correspondence addressed to John Pikoulis from various sources other than those having had personal acquaintance with Alun Lewis but which have relevance to Alun Lewis and/or his literary work and therefore to Pikoulis's research into Lewis, the correspondents comprising: faculty members of University College, Cardiff (1972, 1979, 1981-1983 and undated), the correspondence relating to Pikoulis's proposal to establish a Centre for the Study of Welsh Writing in English at University College, Cardiff, together with printed 1993 Centre for the Study of Welsh Writing in English study guide titled 'Wales at War Alun Lewis & other writers', the guide's consultant editor listed as John Pikoulis; writer, poet and literary critic Roland Mathias (1975); university librarian William Dieneman (1978, 1979 and undated); Bernard Cole (1978); [?writer] Leslie Frewin (1979 and undated); author and librarian Dr F. G. Cowley (1979, 1983); Manchester Central Library (1979); poet and literary critic Alun Llywelyn-Williams (1979); letter from John Pikoulis to writer and poet Derek Stanford (1979) and undated letter to John Pikoulis from Derek Stanford (enclosed in separate envelope); poet, critic, teacher and broadcaster Professor Jeremy Hooker (1979, 1997); David Sims of University College Swansea's English Department (1979); Howard Mallatratt (1980); literary editor, journalist, translator and poet Meic Stephens (1980); Comyns Close Clinic (medical doctors' surgery), London (1980); John R. Bieneman of Lowther College (1980-1981); the National Library of Wales (1980); Ellen Smith Dunlap of the Humanties Research Center at the University of Texas, Austin (1980); John A. Lloyd of the United Africa Company (1980); Keith (Picton) Evans of Bradford College (1980); economic historian Professor Sir Hrothgar John Habakkuk (1980); bibliographer, reviewer and antiquarian bookseller Timothy d'Arch Smith (1980); A. P. Watt Ltd, literary agents to Robert Graves (1980); writer, poet and playwright Ronald Duncan (1980); Alan Hancox (undated), enclosing letter, 1980, from John Pikoulis; Constable & Co. (1980); the British Medical Association (1980); Basil Blackwell of Basil Blackwell & Mott Ltd, publishers (1980, 1981); Paul O'Prey, Professor of Modern Literature at the University of Roehampton (1980, 1982); Faber and Faber Ltd (1980); George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd, publishers (1980); Sotheby's, London (1980); Michael Foot, MP (1980-1981); [writer] John [Alun] Davies (1980); the Government of India National Library (1980); the Inland Revenue (1980); the Reverend John M. C. Yates (1981); Professor Jean-Bertrand Barrère (1981); poet and writer Stephen Spender (1981); The Observer newspaper research department (1981, 1983); writer, teacher and literary editor John Atkins (1981); the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts (1981); The Carnegie United Kingdom Trust (1981); the New Statesman magazine (1981); politician, author, journalist and broadcaster Woodrow Wyatt, Baron Wyatt of Weeford (1981); the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland (1981); G. Davies, borough librarian, Central Library, Aberdare (1981); forensic scientist Margaret Pereira (1981); writer and lecturer Jacqueline Banerjee (1981); Bernard Knight, Professor of Forensic Pathology, University of Wales Welsh National School of Medicine, Cardiff (1981); writer and lecturer Horst S. Jarka (1981); Louisa Hopkins Bowen, Curator of Manuscripts at the Morris Library, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Illinois (1982); poet and writer Ted Hughes (1982, 1985); the British Library (1983); George A. Hilton (1985); schoolteacher David Hughes of Clifton, York (1985); Professor John Harris Paterson of Leicester University (1985); Benedictine nun and author Dame Felicitas Corrigan (1986); writer and lecturer John Harris (1988); Jeff Morgan, director of the BBC2 drama-documentary Alun Lewis: Death and Beauty (broadcast 22 July 1994), enclosing third draft script of the programme for Pikoulis's perusal (1993); Edward E. Milburn (1995); Bethan Hensman (1996, 1998); Angela Morton (1996); Victor Golightly (1996); [most probably the writer] Paul Willetts (1999); writer Cynthia Rogerson (2002); [?] Richards (undated); university lecturer Eric Homberger (undated); academic, cultural historian, author and former BBC programme editor and broadcaster David (Dai) Smith (undated), enclosing copy of a published article on Alun Lewis by Dai Smith (text annotated in John Pikoulis's hand); and renowned authority on Welsh folk music Meredydd Evans (Merêd) (undated note).
Some of the material includes copious notes made in John Pikoulis's hand and several items are annotated by Pikoulis.
Please note that many of the names referenced within the correspondence may be found in other sections of this archive.
Correspondence requiring more detailed description comprises:
Letters, 1980-1990, and undated note on business card, enclosing photocopied material, to John Pikoulis from Ulrich Schaefer, Frankfurt, the contents of the correspondence relating to both Pikoulis's and Schaefer's research into Alun Lewis and his work; draft letter, 1986, to Ulrich Schaefer from John Pikoulis; and letters to Ulrich Shaefer from various other correspondents, including one, 1987, from Bert Harden, who met and became friends with Alun Lewis at Longmoor military camp in Hampshire in 1940 (see under Letters to John Pikoulis from Bert Harden and under Letters to John Pikoulis from military colleagues of Alun Lewis and from military organisations). One item amongst the photocopied material is a letter, 1987, to Schaefer from Gweno Lewis, in which Gweno responds to Schaefer's queries regarding Alun Lewis, her responses annotated, most likely for Pikoulis's benefit ('Do you know?'), in Schaefer's hand. Together with printed and photocopied details from book catalogues, reviews, etc relating to Alun Lewis's works and copies of some of Alun Lewis's work translated into German and French.
Letters, 1981-1982 and undated, to John Pikoulis from writer and novelist Elizabeth Berridge, who claimed, for a brief period, to have been psychically in touch with Alun Lewis through messages transmitted to Berridge from Lewis via automatic writing, or psychography. Together with a transcript of an alleged communication from Alun Lewis to Elizabeth Berridge; suggested rewriting by Elizabeth Berridge of Pikoulis's proposed account of the automatic writing sessions, later published in John Pikoulis: Alun Lewis: A Life (Poetry Wales Press, 1984), pp. 282-93 (attached to letter dated 19 March 1982); photocopy of an undated letter to Gweno Lewis from Elizabeth Berridge; typescript transcripts of Berridge's communications with Alun Lewis (annotated in John Pikoulis's hand) (originally enclosed with Berridge's letter to Gweno Lewis); and rough notes in Pikoulis's hand, on the dorse of which is a typescript transcript of short stories allegedly transmitted by Alun Lewis to Elizabeth Berridge via automatic writing (see John Pikoulis: Alun Lewis: A Life (Poetry Wales Press, 1984), pp. 285-93). The letters contain references to Gweno Lewis, Gwyn Thomas (see under Letter to John Pikoulis from Gwyn Jones) and to John Pikoulis: Alun Lewis: A Miscellany of his Writings (Poetry Wales Press, 1982). For Elizabeth Berridge, see John Pikoulis: Alun Lewis: A Life (Poetry Wales Press, 1984), pp. 282-93.
Letters, 1988, to John Pikoulis from David Leslie Davies, Cwmaman; together with manuscript translation from Welsh into English by (now) Plaid Cymru politician Cefin Campbell of Job Lewis's elegy to his wife Mary, Job and Mary Lewis being Alun Lewis's paternal grandparents. With a manuscript note from Cefin Campbell to John Pikoulis and an attached note in Pikoulis's hand.
Letter, 1995, to John Pikoulis from Edward E. Milburn which refers to the death of his father at sea in August 1940 and to William E. Ellis, brother of Gweno Lewis, whose photocopied letter of 1 December 1944 to Milburn's mother is enclosed, along with a photocopied press article relating to the British freighter Anglo Saxon, the ship on which Milburn's father served as Chief Engineer and William E. Ellis as Second Mate (see John Pikoulis: Alun Lewis: A Life (Poetry Wales Press, 1984), p. 99).
Each envelope marked with name of correspondent and date(s) of correspondence.