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Twenty-eight letters written by Alun Lewis to Brenda Chamberlain, published, but not all in their entirety, by Brenda Chamberlain in Alun Lewis and the Making of the Caseg Broadsheets (London, 1970) (ff. 1-50). The editing of this volume was careless. Apart from minor inaccuracies and omissions, there is confusion of matter from different letters, indication of omitted matter where no omission exists and vice versa. Omitted matter amounts to about a quarter of the total. It may be classified thus: comment on Brenda Chamberlain's work mostly her poetry; trivial business concerning the broadsheets, trivial (not uninteresting) details about Alun Lewis's life; comment on Gweno. A number of omissions in the last category are of some significance; one in the letter of 3 Oct. 1943 deplorably obfuscates the meaning: '... the deep happiness of body and brain [that Gweno brought with her when at last she came to me]'. Also included are letters to Brenda Chamberlain from Vernon Watkins, 1942 (f. 51; Appendix II in the above volume), Gweno Lewis, 1944 (ff. 52-53), and John Rolph, 1956 (f. 54).

The file comprises typescript text of an English translation of Dante's Inferno, cantos XII-IV, presented to David Jones by the translator, Vernon Watkins.

Script, 1966, (21 pp.), entitled '"In country heaven" an unfinished "poem-to-be" by Dylan Thomas', produced by Douglas Cleverdon and broadcast on the Third Programme, December 1966; together with a typescript copy, (6 pp.), of an article by DC, 'Young Aesop fabling by the coracled Towy', and cutting of the published version, 'Dylan Thomas - an unpublished poem', from the Daily Telegraph weekend supplement; and a letter, 1966, from DC to Vernon Watkins in which the former refers to the broadcast and article. Also included is a memorandum, 1963, from DC regarding the programme 'Portrait of Dylan Thomas'.

A facsimile copy, [1965x1985], of a letter, 15 July 1937, from Dylan Thomas, Mousehole, Cornwall, to Vernon Watkins, announcing his marriage to Caitlin Macnamara and apologising for altering a poem by Watkins prior to publication.
The original letter is now BL Add MS 52612, f. 5. It was first published in Dylan Thomas, Letters to Vernon Watkins, ed. by Vernon Watkins (London, 1957), pp. 27-28; see also The Collected Letters of Dylan Thomas: New Edition, ed. by Paul Ferris (London, 2000), p. 294.

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.

Thirteen letters, 1957-1967 from Vernon Watkins to his wife, his mother and his sister, reflecting the poet's family and public life (ff. 1-25). Also included are 30 letters of the same nature, 1938-1967, addressed to Vernon Watkins from various correspondents, including poet Charles Causley, 1962-1967 (ff. 26-32), lifelong friend Eric V. Falk, [1938]-1963 (ff. 35-47), and wife, Gwen, 1945-1947 (ff. 59-66). The correspondence includes a photograph of Vernon, Gwen and Rhiannon Watkins, [1945] (f. 65).
The file also includes 34 letters and cards, 1965 and 1967-2004, addressed to Gwen Watkins from various correspondents, including Roy Fuller, 1976 (f. 74), Michael Hamburger, 1972-2004 (ff. 75-78), John Heath-Stubbs, 1998 (f. 79), Andrew Motion, 1987 (f. 81), Leslie Norris, 1974-1980 (ff. 82-86), Peter Redgrove, 1977 (f. 88), and David Wright, 1971-1988 (ff. 101-106). Most of these letters relate to Vernon Watkins's poetry.

Over a hundred letters, 1901-1991, of miscellaneous provenance from twentieth-century Anglo-Welsh writers to various recipients; the correspondents include Gillian Clarke (10, and three poems) 1986-1988, Rhys Davies (10) 1928-1929, 1975-1978, W. H. Davies (13, together with press cuttings, 1905-1950s, and four printed poems) [1909x1913]-1925, David Jones (8) 1960-1973, John Cowper Powys (7) 1927-1953, Dylan Thomas (10) 1938-1952, Edward Thomas (7) 1901-1912, Gwyn Thomas (2) 1952-1953, R. S. Thomas (6) 1956-1960 and Vernon Watkins (5) 1962-1966.

Letters, 1933-1953, to Idris Davies from over forty correspondents including T. S. Eliot, 1944-1949 (ff. 30, 39, 60), Dylan Thomas, 1949-1953 (ff. 53, 77), Vernon Watkins, 1950 (ff. 62-65 verso, 83), and W. B. Yeats, 1936 (f. 11).

The file comprises letters from various people including D. Brynmor Anthony, Vernon Watkins (6, 1 incomplete) and Gwen Watkins, William Cookson, Howard Griffin, Vincent Lines (3), Vera Bassett, Neville Braybrooke (4), K. M. Elisabeth Murray, Louis Bonnerot, Percival R. Kirby, Sir Ifor Evans (2), Charles L. H. Duchemin (4), Arnold Palmer (3), William Blissett, Raymond Garlick (2), John Buckland Wright, August Closs (4), D. Emrys Evans, Helen Sutherland (2), David Bell (2), Megan Lloyd George, T. Charles Edwards, Valerie Wynne-Williams (2), J. E. Jones, William Hayward (4), John P[iper], Sir John Cecil Williams (2), Donald Nicholl (5), A. Robert Caponigri, Prof. Thomas Jones (3), Elwyn Evans (2), Alun Oldfield-Davies (3, 1 incomplete), Canon Walter Hussey, Alan Pryce-Jones, Geraint Gruffydd (2), Harman Grisewood, V. E. Nash-Williams, Kenneth Clark, Dr Charles Burns (incomplete), Colin Wilcockson, Janet Stone and W. B. Dalton.

Miscellaneous papers of, or relating to, Idris Davies. They include a draft poem, [c. 1945], by Idris Davies; comments by him, dated November 1936, on A. E. Housman, More Poems (London, 1936); and a typescript radio talk, entitled 'The valleys revisited', broadcast 1943. Also included is a postcard from Idris Davies, 1935, two letters to him, 1952 and 1956, and twenty-six letters relating to him, 1954-1983, addressed to the Rev. Islwyn Jenkins, Carmarthen, and including letters from T. S. Eliot, 1955 (f. 23), Glyn Jones, 1954-1968 (ff. 30-33 verso), and Vernon Watkins, 1956 (f. 50).

The file contains a typescript and two copies of proofs of the 1978 reprint of Vernon Watkins' The Unity of the Stream, one with handwritten corrections by Gwen Watkins and the other by Roland Mathias.

Forty-five letters and cards, 1948-1967 (mostly 1964-1967), from Vernon Watkins to his mother, Sarah Watkins, 1962-1967 (ff. 1-71), and to his sisters, Marjorie Watkins, 1964 (ff. 72-73), and Dorothy Watkins, 1948-1967 (ff. 74-94 verso), containing mainly personal and family news.

A letter, 12 December 1964, from Vernon Watkins, Pennard, to the poet and editor Neville Braybrooke, in which he discusses 'The Beach of Falesá', the recently published adaptation by Dylan Thomas of R. L. Stevenson's novella (see Dylan Thomas, The Beach of Falesá (New York, 1963)), as well as his recent work and his visit to Seattle the previous Spring.

Two typescript letters, 1953-1955, from Vernon Watkins, Pennard, to poet and publisher John Lehmann, the first, 13 November 1953, concerning the death of Watkins's close friend Dylan Thomas four days earlier (f. 46), the second, 8 August 1955, concerning his foreword to Dylan Thomas, Adventures in the Skin Trade (London, 1955) (f. 47).

Some fourteen letters, 1923-1950 (mostly 1923-1924), from Vernon Watkins to his schoolfriend, Eric V. Falk, chiefly concerned with life at Repton School and the poet's unhappiness after leaving, including two apparently unpublished poems (ff. 14-15); together with two further letters to Falk, 1923, one being from Graham B. Smith, history master at Repton, the 'Mr Holmes' of Christopher Isherwood's Lions and Shadows (London, 1938).

Three typescript letters, March-August 1962, from the poet Vernon Watkins, Pennard Cliffs, to a Mr Rogers, giving advice about the latter's poems and explaining his own approach to writing poetry.

Papers, [1920s]-1988, of Vernon Watkins, comprising drafts of poems published in collections and elsewhere, 1934-1967, unpublished poems, [1920s]-1967, and verse translations from German, French, Greek, Italian, Spanish and Hungarian, [1920s]-1967; drafts and translations of verse dramas, [1920s]-[1940x1967]; prose articles and essays, [1935]-1967; radio scripts, 1948-1967; talks and lecture notes, 1947-1967; correspondence, 1937-1988, including letters to Gwen Watkins following her husband's death; diaries, 1931, 1966; bibliographical lists of his poetry, [?1941]-1967; and some literary material relating to posthumous publications, 1976-1978.

Holograph working draft, [?1944], by Vernon Watkins of 'Memories', an English translation of Friederich Hölderlin's poem 'Andeken' (see for instance Friederich Hölderlin, Poems and Fragments, trans. by Michael Hamburger, 4th bilingual edn (London, 2004), pp. 576, 578).
The translation was first published in Life and Letters To-day, 44 (January 1945), 24-25, and was collected in Vernon Watkins, Selected Verse Translations (London, 1977), pp. 65-67. Ten of the poem's fifty-nine lines contain emendations by the author; the revised form corresponds exactly with the published version.

Corrected galley proofs of Ballad of the Mari Lwyd and Other Poems, 2nd edn (1947), The Death Bell: Poems and Ballads (1954) and The Ballad of the Outer Dark and Other Poems (1979) by Vernon Watkins, together with correspondence relating to the publishing of his work.

Correspondence, 1956-1967, mostly addressed to Vernon Watkins, with five letters from him, mainly discussing works concerning Dylan Thomas, including the publication of Letters to Vernon Watkins (London, 1957); together with two agreements, 1957, regarding the book between Vernon Watkins and the Trustees for the Estate of Dylan Thomas; a transcript of an interview with Vernon Watkins, broadcast in 1958, during which he reminisces about his friend; a typescript Foreword, 1955, to Adventures in the skin trade (London, 1955), containing autograph corrections and additions; and uncorrected proofs, 2003, of Poems for Dylan by Vernon Watkins with a small poster advertising the launch of the book.