Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1953-1955 (Creation)
Level of description
Item
Extent and medium
2 ff.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Vernon Watkins (1906-1967), poet, was the second of three children of William and Sarah Watkins. He was born in Maesteg, Glamorgan, on 27 June 1906 but grew up in Swansea, Glamorgan, and on the Gower. He attended Repton School, Derbyshire, 1920-1924, then (for one year) studied modern languages at Magdalene College, Cambridge. He was briefly a clerk at Lloyds Bank in Cardiff but after a breakdown he returned home to Swansea and moved to the Lloyds Bank branch in St Helens. He served with RAF Police and Intelligence, 1941-1946, but otherwise remained with Lloyds for the remainder of his working life. In 1941 he published his first collection of poems, Ballad of the Mari Lwyd (London, 1941), followed by The Lamp and the Veil (London, 1945), Selected Poems (Norfolk, Conn., 1948), The Lady with the Unicorn (London, 1948), The Death Bell (London, 1954), Cypress and Acacia (London, 1959), Affinities (London, 1962), and Fidelities (London, 1968) which appeared posthumously. As a poet he was scrupulous, working through numerous drafts to reach a final version and often undertaking further revision after publication. In addition to original poetry he translated European verse into English, including Heine's The North Sea (London, 1955), and wrote essays on other poets. He corresponded widely with literary figures and became friends with the likes of W. B. Yeats, T. S. Eliot, Philip Larkin and, in particular, Dylan Thomas. In 1944 he married Gwendoline (Gwen) Mary Davies (b. 1923), a colleague at RAF Intelligence, and they had five children. Following his retirement in 1966 he lectured at the University College of Swansea. He was then appointed Visiting Professor of Poetry at the University of Washington but died on 8 October 1967, shortly after arriving in Seattle to take up his post. Some of his previously unpublished and uncollected works appeared in Uncollected Poems (London, 1969), Selected Verse Translations, ed. by Ruth Pryor (London, 1977), The Breaking of the Wave (Ipswich, 1979), and Ballad of the Outer Dark, ed. by Ruth Pryor (London, 1979).
Name of creator
Biographical history
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
International Autograph Auctions Ltd; Nottingham; Purchased at auction, lot 190 (with ff. 48-49); 26 April 2018; 99867536702419.
Content and structure area
Scope and content
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).
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Arranged chronologically at NLW.
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Usual copyright laws apply. Information regarding ownership of Vernon Watkins copyright can be found at http://tyler.hrc.utexas.edu/ (viewed October 2018).
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Language and script notes
English.
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Generated finding aid
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
Title based on contents.
Alternative identifier(s)
Alma system control number
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Watkins, Vernon Phillips, 1906-1967 -- Correspondence (Subject)
- Lehmann, John, 1907-1987 -- Correspondence (Subject)
- Thomas, Dylan, 1914-1953 (Subject)
- Thomas, Dylan, 1914-1953 -- Death and burial. (Subject)