Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 3 Rhagfyr 1927 / (Creation)
Level of description
Item
Extent and medium
1 f.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Saunders Lewis, dramatist, poet, historian and literary critic, was born in Wallasey, Cheshire to a family of prominent Welsh Calvinistic Methodists. He was educated at a boys's school in Liscard and at Liverpool University, where he studied English and French. His academic career was interrupted by the First World War, in which Lewis served with the South Wales Borderers, but he quickly resumed his studies at the end of the conflict, and, having graduated, worked as librarian in Glamorgan before taking up a post as lecturer in the Welsh department of the University College of Swansea. In 1925, Lewis was one of the pioneering figures involved in establishing the National Party of Wales (later known as Plaid Cymru) and was made President of the fledgeling organisation the following year. Having written about the Roman Catholic church for a number of years, in 1932 Lewis converted to the faith also practised by his wife Margaret. In 1936, Lewis, D. J. Williams and Lewis Valentine set fire to the Royal Airforce's Bombing School in Penyberth on the Lleyn Peninsula, an event which has gone down in the annals of Welsh history and which earned Lewis imprisonment in Wormwood Scrubs and dismissal from his lecturing post in Swansea. He was eventually appointed senior lecturer in Welsh at the University of Cardiff but retired in 1957 to devote his time to writing. Lewis's litarary output is prodigious and he is considered by many to be the most important Welsh literary and political figure of the twentieth century; it is considered that his radio address for 1962, Tynged yr Iaith, was the direct instigating force behind the establishment of the Welsh language movement Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg.
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Mrs Gwenda Trow (daughter of D. Llewelyn Jones); Llanidloes; Donation; August 2001; A2001/42.
Content and structure area
Scope and content
A letter, 3 December 1927, in Welsh, from Saunders Lewis to the Rev. D. Llewelyn Jones, Pontrhydygroes, Cardiganshire, relating to Lewis's Williams Pantycelyn (London, 1927), reviewed by D. Llewelyn Jones in Baner ac Amserau Cymru, 20 December 1927, p. 7, and 27 December 1927, p. 5.
There is an explanatory note by D. Llewelyn Jones on the envelope (f. 149a verso).
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
Welsh.
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
Title based on contents.
Note
Preferred citation: NLW MS 23699E, f. 149.