Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- [1920 x 1998] / (Creation)
Level of description
Fonds
Extent and medium
0.658 cubic metres (23 boxes); 3 small boxes (April 2011)
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
John Cledwyn Hughes (1920-1978), novelist, was born in Llansanffraid, Montgomeryshire, where his family had farmed for generations. He was a qualified hospital pharmacist, and worked in Yorkshire and Liverpool before settling in Arthog, Merionethshire, in 1947, as a full-time writer. He married Alyna and they had two daughters. He wrote numerous books, among them The Different Drummer (1947), The Inn Closes for Christmas (1947), Wennon (1948) and The Civil Strangers (1949). His topographical books, A Wanderer in North Wales (1949) and Portrait of Snowdonia (1967) were widely acclaimed. He also wrote children's books, including a collection of short stories, The King who Lived on Jelly (1961). He died at Arthog in 1978.
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Parts purchased from John Cledwyn Hughes, 1972, and his widow, 1979
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Manuscripts and typescripts of works by John Cledwyn Hughes, [1928]-[1978], including typescript copies, printer's copies, proofs and manuscript holographs, with holograph amendments and additions of his non-fictional books, including: A Wanderer in North Wales (1949), Poaching down the Dee (1953), The Northern Marches (1953), West with the Tinkers. A journey through Wales with vagrants (1954), The House in the Cornfield (1956), Royal Wales (with a revised and curtailed version called History of Wales) (1957), Leonard Cheshire, V.C. (1959), Making an Orchard (1959), Ponies for Children (1960), Portrait of Snowdonia (1967), and The Batsford Colour Book of Wales (1975); his published novels including: The Inn Closes for Christmas (1947), The Different Drummer (1947), The Civil Strangers (1949), After the Holiday (1950) and Gold and the Moonspray (1953); children's stories; short stories; and his unpublished works; together with copies, including a manuscript holograph, of The Golden Mountain, serialized in Woman's Journal; correspondence with publishers, his agent and literary figures, 1938-1968; and certificates awarded to Cledwyn Hughes, 1928-1934. The 2011 donation comprises additional drafts of works, volumes of press cuttings, and correspondence.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Action: All records at the National Library of Wales have been retained..
Accruals
Accruals are not expected.
System of arrangement
Arranged by date of acquisition: the 1972 and 1979 purchases are NLW MSS 20764-9, 20891-4C, 21635-62; the 1983 deposit is arranged under fiction, non-fiction, short stories, other prose items and correspondence; the 1995 donation is arranged under typescript copies of works and miscellaneous; and the 2011 donation is arranged into three series: drafts, press cuttings, and correspondence and miscellaneous papers.
Arranged by date of acquisition: the 1972 and 1979 purchases are NLW MSS 20764-9, 20891-4C, 21635-62; the 1983 deposit is arranged under fiction, non-fiction, short stories, other prose items and correspondence; and the 1995 donation is arranged under typescript copies of works and miscellaneous.
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 1998 in relation to any processing by them of personal data obtained from modern records held at the Library.
Conditions governing reproduction
Usual copyright regulations apply.
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
English.
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Hard copies of the catalogues (List of Cledwyn Hughes MSS, Minor Lists and Summaries 1983, pp. 19-23, and 1996, p. 25) are available at the National Library of Wales, excluding the 2011 donation.
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
Title supplied from contents of fonds.
Alternative identifier(s)
Virtua system control number
Project identifier
Access points
Place access points
Name access points
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Description follows ANW guidelines based on ISAD(G) 2nd ed.; AACR2; and LCSH
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
February 2003 and March 2014.
Language(s)
- English
Script(s)
Sources
Archivist's note
Compiled by Seri Crawley for the ANW Project. The following sources were used for the preparation of the description: NLW Schedule of Cledwyn Hughes Manuscripts; Stephens, Meic, Oxford Companion to the Literature of Wales (Oxford, 1986);