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Casey, Mary, 1915-1980
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Letters from Lucy Penny

Sixteen letters and ten postcards, 1946-1949, to John Cowper Powys from his sister, Lucy Penny, containing mostly family news, including accounts of time spent in Kenya with her brother and sister-in-law William (Willie) and Elizabeth Powys and daughter and son-in-law Mary and Gerard Casey; together with four enclosed letters, one separate letter and two postcards to John Cowper Powys from his niece Mary Casey and one postcard to John Cowper Powys from both Lucy and their sister Philippa (Katie) Powys.

Letters from Lucy Penny

Twenty-one letters and two postcards, 1923-1945, to John Cowper Powys from his sister, Lucy Penny, mostly containing family news, including the death of Lucy's husband, Hounsell, in February 1945, Lucy's accounts of time spent in Kenya with her brother and sister-lin-law William (Willie) and Elizabeth Powys, and the marriage of Lucy's daughter Mary to Gerard Casey in November 1945. There are also a few references to and observations on wartime activities. A note in Mary Penny (later Casey)'s hand is written across the top of one letter dated 1923. Also included are one enclosed letter to Lucy Penny from her sister Philippa (Katie) Powys and one enclosed letter to Phyllis Playter from Lucy. Included as part of this correspondence and filed within an envelope are three undated letters to John Cowper Powys from Lucy which pre-date the death of Lucy's husband, Hounsell Penny, but which cannot be placed with any certainty within the chronology of the collection.

Letters from Lucy Penny

Thirty-four letters and six postcards, 1953-[?1963] and undated, to John Cowper Powys from his sister, Lucy Penny, containing mostly family news, including the death of John Cowper Powys's son Littleton Alfred in 1954 and the final illness and death of Lucy's and John Cowper Powys's brothers Theodore Francis (1953) and Littleton Charles (1955). Two of the letters are written from Allington Sanatorium, Bridport. Enclosures comprise one letter to Lucy from her husband's cousin, Nellie Hounsell, three letters and one note to Phyllis Playter from Lucy, one letter to Lucy from her daughter, Mary Casey, and one letter to Phyllis Playter from Philippa (Katie) Powys. Included as part of this correspondence and filed within an envelope are one undated letter and two undated postcards which pre-date the deaths of Theodore, Littleton Alfred and Littleton Charles but which cannot be placed with any certainty within the chronology of the collection.

Letters from Mary Casey

Twenty-two letters and one postcard, 1944, 1946-1947, 1949, 1952-1953, 1957-1960, to John Cowper Powys from his niece Mary Casey, daughter of Lucy Penny. The letters mostly contain personal and family news, with references also to the deaths of novelist and journalist Theodore Dreiser in 1945 (f. 8) and of Joan Lambert Wilkinson, wife of the writer Louis Wilkinson (f. 39), in 1957, Mary's husband Gerard Casey's ill-health in 1959 (ff. 42-46 verso), and Gerard and Mary's response to John Cowper Powys's novel Homer and the Aether (1959) (f. 44). One letter includes a note to John Cowper Powys from Gerard Casey (f. 16-verso). Enclosed with one letter (ff. 27-32) are photographs of Gerard Casey and Mary's uncle William (Willie) Powys and his sons Gilfrid and Charles Powys and of scenes of rural life in Kenya.

Letters from other Powys family members

Letters to Phyllis Playter from Mabel Powys, first wife of Littleton Charles Powys (1), [1940] (with a short note from Littleton Charles Powys); John Cowper Powys's sister, Philippa (Katie) Powys (8), [1945], [1948], 1957, 1960 (one letter, 1960, containing a note from Katie's sister, Lucy Penny; Isobel Powys Marks, daughter of John Cowper Powys's brother, Albert Reginald (Bertie) Powys (13 letters and 2 postcards), 1946, 1949, 1959, 1963, 1964, 1971 and undated; Lucy Penny's daughter, Mary Casey (16 letters and 2 postcards), 1949, 1953, 1958-1963, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1972 (reference to scattering John Cowper Powys's ashes on Chesil Beach and the death of Llewelyn Powys's wife, Alyse Gregory), and Mary's husband, Gerard (1), [?1980] (refers to the death of Mary Casey); John Cowper Powys's niece, Eleanor Powys (1), 1949; John Cowper Powys's son, Littleton Alfred Powys (1), 1949 (enclosing four photographs of Littleton Alfred, one taken with John Cowper Powys, and three of which are inscribed by Littleton Alfred Powys, with a note by Powys biographer Morine Krissdottir on f. 51) and an undated photograph of St Dominic's Church, Dursley, Gloucestershire, inscribed on the dorse by Littleton Alfred; John Cowper Powys's brother, Littleton Charles Powys (1), 1949; Stephen Powys Marks, son of Isobel (1), 1959; John Cowper Powys's sister-in-law, Faith Powys (4), 1962, 1963, 1967; Marian Powys's son, Peter Powys Grey (2), 1963, 1966; Antonia Goldhill, daughter of Isobel (4), 1963 and undated); John Francis Cowper Powys, grandson of Theodore Francis Powys (3 letters and 1 postcard), 1967, 1971, 1972 (references to his marriage and including ink drawings illustrating his new home and possessions, and mention of the death of Violet Powys, John's grandmother); John Cowper Powys's brother, William Ernest (Willie) Powys (1), 1967; and Theodore Francis Powys's daughter-in-law, Sally Powys, wife of Francis Llewellyn Powys (5), 1967, 1978, 1980 and undated.