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Vernon Watkins manuscripts
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Radio scripts

Cyclostyled radio scripts, including poetry readings, and talks, 1949-1967, by Vernon Watkins or relating to him and his work.

Talks and lectures

Autograph and typescript notes and drafts, 1947-1967, for talks and lectures by Vernon Watkins on subjects including the translation of poetry, poetry in English, including his own, and the art of Ceri Richards.

On Wilfred Owen

Autograph and typescript essays and lecture notes, [c. 1935]-[1966], on Wilfred Owen and his poetry.

Stories for children

Autograph and typescript drafts, 1929-1932, of an unpublished collection of stories and verse produced by Vernon Watkins in collaboration with two friends from Cambridge, one of whom prepared the lino-cut illustrations. Also included is a verse fragment of a Fairy Comic Opera entitled 'Garden of Chimaera' (ff. 127-32).

Correspondence, A-G

Over a hundred letters, 1938-1968, to Vernon Watkins, with a few addressed to Mrs Gwen Watkins, from various correspondents (surnames A-G), including Douglas Cleverdon (14) 1958-1968, Cyril Connolly (1) 1947, T. S. Eliot (1 transcript) 1947, and Roy Fuller (1) 1967.

Correspondence, H-O

Some ninety-eight letters, 1939-1976, to Vernon Watkins, with a few addressed to Mrs Gwen Watkins, from various correspondents (surnames H-O), including Michael Hamburger (12, including two poems) 1949-1967, Alfred Janes (4) 1949-1967, Dr Daniel Jones (5) 1947-1970, Glyn Jones (1) 1945, Professor Gwyn Jones (3) 1939-1976, Ray Howard-Jones (1) 1966, and Roland Mathias (1) 1965.

Correspondence, P-R

Some eighty-two letters, 1937-1977, to Vernon Watkins, with a few addressed to Mrs Gwen Watkins, from various correspondents (surnames P-R), including Keidrych Rhys (22, with one copy letter from Vernon Watkins) 1937-1956, and Ceri Richards (26, together with six of Watkins's replies) [c. 1948]-1967.

Correspondence, S-W

Some ninety-three letters, 1939-1968, mostly to Vernon Watkins, with one to Dorothy Watkins, 1968, from various correspondents (surnames S-W), including Roberto Sanesi (3) 1957-1968, M. J. Tambimuttu (4) 1940-1964, and Grace Williams (12) 1965-1967, together with eight letters, 1950-1964, to various correspondents from Vernon Watkins, some being drafts or copies.

Diary

Printed diary for 1966, containing a few notes of appointments from July onwards.

On Dylan Thomas

Autograph and typescript drafts, 1948-1967, of published poetry and published and unpublished prose by Vernon Watkins, mostly composed following the death of Dylan Thomas in 1953, including drafts of Vernon Watkins's poem 'Elegy for the Latest Dead', 1954, and two unfinished poems by Dylan Thomas, 'Elegy' and 'In Country Heaven', completed by Vernon Watkins; and radio scripts, lecture notes, draft reviews and articles by him relating to Dylan Thomas and his work.

Thomas, Dylan, 1914-1953

Correspondence and papers

Some sixty-five letters, 1944-1967, to Vernon Watkins from various correspondents, who include Aneirin Talfan Davies (1) 1963, Winifred Ellerman (Bryher) (1) 1953, Constantine Fitzgibbon (7, copies of extracts) 1964-1965, Mervyn Levy (1) 1957, and Goronwy Rees (2) 1956; together with copies of three letters, 1965, from Vernon Watkins. Also included are typescript drafts, 1961-1967, by Vernon Watkins for various published and unpublished articles, mainly on aspects of literature, together with two calligraphic manuscripts by W. Emlyn Davies relating to Vernon Watkins.

Vernon Watkins letters

Twelve letters, 1949-1967, from Vernon Watkins to various correspondents, together with eleven letters, 1940-1941, to Watkins from J. R. Ackerley, chiefly concerned with the poet's work.

Ackerley, J. R. (Joe Randolph), 1896-1967

Poetry and prose

Typescript drafts, 1941-1963, of published works by Vernon Watkins, comprising two poems, 'Discoveries' (see The Ballad of the Mari Lwyd (1941)), and 'The Salmon' (see Uncollected Poems (1969)) (ff. 1-2); a prose translation of a play by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, 'The Salzburg Great World Theatre' (see Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Selected Plays and Libretti, ed. by Michael Hamburger (1963)) (ff. 3-49); and a foreword, 1963, to Kenneth Grahame, The Golden Age and Dream Days (1964) (ff. 50-57).

Poetry, prose and correspondence

Typescript draft, [1940s], of Vernon Watkins's poem 'Yeats in Dublin' (ff. 1-7; see also NLW MS 21263E, ff. 46-58); a radio script, 1958, of Watkins's 'The Ballad of the Mari Lwyd', produced by Douglas Cleverdon and annotated by him (ff. 8-30); and personal and family correspondence, [c. 1946]-1988 (ff. 31-70).

Published poems

Autograph and typescript drafts, [1944]-[1954], of four poems by Vernon Watkins, published in The Lady with the Unicorn (London, 1948) (ff. 1-3) and The Death Bell (London, 1954) (ff. 4-7).
It includes a manuscript draft, [1944], of 'The Sardine-Fishers' (published as 'Sardine-Fishers at Daybreak') (ff. 2-3).

Taliesin

Exercise book containing a draft poem, [1920x1939], by Vernon Watkins entitled 'Taliesin', apparently unpublished (ff. 2-4).

Unpublished early poems

Exercise book containing drafts of a poem, 1924, composed by Vernon Watkins during his year at Magdalene College, Cambridge, and apparently unpublished (ff. 48-54 verso, 57 recto-verso).
The volume also contains notes, 1924, on the Epistle to the Ephesians (ff. 1-11).

Unpublished poems

Autograph and typescript drafts, 1930-1964 and undated, of shorter poems by Vernon Watkins, almost all apparently unpublished.
Two poems, 'Note towards a poem' (f. 74) and 'There is a pattern...' (f. 75) appeared in Poetry Wales, 12.4 (Spring 1977), 38, 43.

Unpublished poems

Autograph and typescript drafts, [1930s]-1967, of poems by Vernon Watkins, almost all apparently unpublished.
There are copies of both short and long poems, as well as fragments, including multiple drafts of 'The Birth to Destruction', 1937-1947 (ff. 6-17), 'The Moth', 1952-1966 (ff. 55-89, thirty-seven drafts), 'The Will', 1960-1961 (ff. 93-100), 'The Melodramatic', 1965-1967 (ff. 101-112), and 'The Fall of Sodom', [1960x1967] (ff. 285-300), and a number of apparently different poems on the theme of 'Taliesin', 1938 (ff. 18-33). 'The Measure Moves' (ff. 70 verso, 72 verso, 73 verso, 75 verso) and 'The Guest' (f. 223 verso) appeared in Fidelities (London, 1968), pp. 26, 96.

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