Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1941-1942 / (Creation)
Level of description
File
Extent and medium
160 ff. Originally kept in a collectors red folder (not retained), labeled 'AUTOBIOGRAPHY, ORIGINAL Ms. Margiad Evans', and numbered 'A935'. Placed in melinex sleeves within ringed box at NLW.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Margiad Evans (1909-1958), born Peggy Eileen Whistler (later Williams), was a novelist, poet and artist, from Uxbridge, London. She moved to Bridstow, near Ross-on-Wye in 1920, where she lived until 1936. In 1940 she married Michael Williams and moved to Llangarron, staying there for eight years. She then moved to Gloucestershire and later to Sussex. Her first novel, published in 1932, was Country Dance, she then had three further novels published, The Wooden Doctor (1932), Turf or Stone (1934) and Creed (1936). She also published two autobiographical works, Autobiography (1943) and A Ray of Darkness (1952); a collection of short stories The Old and the Young (1948); and two volumes of poetry, Poems from Obscurity (1947) and A Candle Ahead (1956). She died in 1958.
Archival history
It appears that the chapters were acquired by the bookdealer Alan Hancox, Cheltenham, and subsequently sold to the collector Harry Walton of Covington, Virginia.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Bloomsbury Auctions; London; Purchased at auction (Harry and Virginia Walton Sale), lot 114; 9 July 2009; 004681009
Content and structure area
Scope and content
A collection of seven holograph chapters by Peggy Eileen Whistler ('Margiad Evans'), written 1941-1942, and published, with a further six chapters, as 'Autobiography' (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1943). One chapter, 'Before the Snow' is dated 'March 1942' and described as an 'original first draft' (f. 93). The chapters are accompanied by two letters, September 1956, from Whistler to Alan and Dorothy Hancox.
The chapters include Winter Journal (ff. 6-55), Before the Snow (ff. 56-93), The Field (ff. 94-101), Looking at a Star (ff. 102-107), The Autobiography of an Afternoon (ff. 108-131), Morning (ff. 132-140), and Conclusion, Under the Oak Tree (ff. 141-160).
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
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 noted on the 'Modern papers - data protection' form issued with their readers' tickets.
Conditions governing reproduction
Usual copyright laws apply. Information regarding ownership of Margiad Evans copyright can be found at http://tyler.hrc.utexas.edu/ (viewed November 2010).
Language of material
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
Notes area
Note
Title based on contents.
Note
Preferred citation: NLW MS 23997D.
Alternative identifier(s)
Virtua system control number
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Hancox, Alan. (Subject)
- Hancox, Dorothy (Subject)
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Description follows NLW guidelines based on ISAD(G) 2nd ed.; AACR2; and LCSH
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
November 2010.
Language(s)
- English
Script(s)
Sources
Archivist's note
Description compiled by Maredudd ap Huw;