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Notebook of Berta Ruck, July 1940-June 1941, containing journal entries and comments on the progress of the war. Press cuttings relating to contemporary events, other ephemera and seventy-three letters, postcards and telegrams, May 1940-March 1941, mostly to the author, have been pasted in.
The correspondents include Michael Joseph, 12 July 1940 (f. 2), Harold Nicolson, 3 June 1940 (f. 2 verso), Helen Rees ('Jane Oliver'), 16 August 1940 (f. 10 verso), Robert Owen Morris, 19 August 1940 (f. 12 verso), Maurice Bowra, December 1940-February 1941 (ff. 26, 66 verso), Tony Thorne, August-September 1940 (ff. 32 verso, 35), Dolf Wyllarde, 27 November 1940 (f. 34 verso), Peter Wykeham-Barnes, [December 1940] (f. 35 verso), Alys Meirion, October-December 1940 (ff. 36 verso, 45 verso), Angela Thirkell, 8 November 1940 (f. 45), Edith Heal, 18 December 1940 (f. 47), Marda Vanne, November-December 1940 (ff. 50 verso-51), Bradwell T. Turner, 12 May 1940 (f. 53 verso), and Alec Waugh, 8 January 1941 (f. 54a-b). A photograph of Ruck is on f. 5 verso and there are pen drawings by her on ff. 10, 23. Press cuttings include political cartoons by David Low, from the Evening Standard (ff. 2 verso, 29 verso, 30 verso, 33 verso, 41, 46, 64 verso-65), and items relating to the deaths of John Llewelyn Rees (ff. 8 verso, 11, 68) and Amy Johnson (ff. 51 verso, 63 verso). Programmes for Christmas events in Aberdyfi and Tywyn, December 1940, are on ff. 38 verso and 48.

Notebook of Berta Ruck, 1957-1960, including letters from Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies, February 1958, September 1959 and [n.d.], Eleanor Graham, September 1957, Harold Nicolson, September 1958, Brocard Sewell, February-March 1960, and Sacheverell Sitwell, March 1958; two sketches, 1901, which Ruck drew for a School of Art scholarship; and printed extracts from tributes to Alice Helena Alexandra Williams ('Alys Meirion') following her death in 1957, including Berta Ruck's broadcast in 'Woman's Hour'.

Notebook of Berta Ruck, April 1962-July 1964, including letters from Lord Toby Aldington, August 1962, Ursula Bloom, October 1963, Barbara Cartland, [n.d.], Harold B. Hewitt, October 1963, Heather Jenner, November 1963, Dyfnallt Morgan, October 1963, and Harold Nicolson, December 1962; and a memorial service card of her brother Oliver Laurence Ruck, Llanidloes Parish Church.

Miscellaneous papers of Berta Ruck, 1902-[early 1970s], including autograph and typescript drafts of verse, [1920s]-[1930s], many in multiple copies (ff. 1-123); lecture notes, [c. 1935]-[c. 1945] (ff. 124-224); a short story, 'April Folly', [c. 1935], apparently related to her novel Half Past Kissing Time (London, 1936) (ff. 225-248); and some thirteen letters to the author in English and German, [1903x1904]-1971 (ff. 264-283).
The correspondents include Clement Scott, [1903x1904] (f. 264), Marda Vanne, 9 October 1936 (f. 280), Harold Nicolson, 14 June 1962 (f. 281, on the death of his wife, Vita Sackville-West), and Quentin Bell, September 1971 (ff. 282-283, concerning his biography of Virginia Woolf); there are also three letters, 1929, from 'Harry', her Austrian lover (ff. 265-272, mostly in German). Also included are two leaves from Ruck's journal, June 1930 (ff. 249-250); reminiscences, [early 1970s], of Lydia Lopokova (ff. 251-259) with a photograph of her, [?1920s] (f. 260); press cuttings of an article by Ruck, September 1936 (f. 261), and of two articles relating to Virginia Woolf, 1972 (ff. 262-263); W. R. Oliver's school report at Shrewsbury School, 1929 (f. 284); programme for 'My Lady Molly' at the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, 1902 (ff. 285-286); and page proofs for Chapter 8 of A Smile for the Past (London, 1935) (ff. 287-292).

Notebook of Berta Ruck, Aberdyfi, September-December 1939, containing journal entries and comments on the progress of the war. Press cuttings relating to contemporary events, photographs and some forty-six letters and postcards, mostly personal, to the author have been pasted in.
The correspondents include her son Arthur Oliver, October-[November] 1939 (ff. 13-14, 16, 33 recto-verso, 42-44), Ménie Muriel FitzGerald, 2 October 1939 (f. 12 verso), Michael Joseph, October-November 1939 (ff. 12 verso, 40, 59 verso), Anthony Thorne, [1939] (f. 34), Horace Horsnell, 28 November 1939 (f. 59), Harold Nicolson, 21 November 1939 (f. 59a), and Osbert Sitwell, 28 November 1939 (f. 60 verso). There are numerous references in journal and letters to the marriages of both her sons, Arthur and Bill, in October 1939. Among the photographs are one of Ruck (inside front cover) and two of Bill Oliver (inside front cover, f. 36 verso).