Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1935-1980 (Creation)
Level of description
File
Extent and medium
1 box.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Phyllis Playter was born in 1894 in Kansas City, Missouri, to Canadian-American parents. She first met John Cowper Powys in March 1921 during a lecture tour of the United States and subsequently became Powys's long-term companion from 1923 until his death forty years later. Herself a gifted writer and poet, Playter's own career was largely subsumed in that of Powys's, upon whose work she nevertheless exerted significant influence. In his letters and diaries Powys commonly refers to Playter as 'the T.T.' (the 'Tiny Thin' or 'The Tao'). Following Powys's death in 1963, Playter continued to live in their last home at 1 Waterloo, Blaenau Ffestiniog, until her own death in 1982.
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
One hundred and eighty-five letters, 1935-1980, from Phyllis Playter, mainly from Corwen and Blaenau Ffestiniog, to Lucy Penny.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Arranged chronologically.
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Readers consulting modern papers in the National Library of Wales are required to abide by the conditions set out in information provided when applying for their Readers' Tickets, whereby the reader shall become responsible for compliance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation 2018 in relation to any processing by them of personal data obtained from modern records held at the Library.
Conditions governing reproduction
Usual copyright laws apply.
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Language and script notes
English.
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Publication note
Fourteen of the letters were published in Phyllis Playter, 'Letters to Lucy Amelia Penny (née Powys)', The Powys Journal, 2 (1992), 189-210.
Notes area
Note
Title based on contents.
Alternative identifier(s)
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Playter, Phyllis -- Correspondence (Subject)