Showing 14 results

Material relating to a project co-ordinated by Tony Curtis which involved the digitisation of previously video-recorded interviews/conversations conducted by Tony Curtis and others with literary figures, namely Dannie Abse, Ron Berry, Emyr Humphreys, Sian James, Glyn Jones, Elaine Morgan, Leslie Norris, Alun Richards and Bernice Rubens, all of whom also read from their works.
The material comprises: correspondence between Tony Curtis and participating interviewees; script of what appears to be an introductory talk by Tony Curtis given prior to audience viewing of the digitised footage; details of original video recordings; contact details; and rough manuscript notes by Tony Curtis.

Papers relating to a lecture on Anglo-Welsh poetry by Tony Curtis, which include poetry by Anglo-Welsh writers such as Dylan Thomas, R. S. Thomas, Robert Minhinnick and Harri Webb, and printed leaflet relating to the Centre for the Study of Welsh Writing in English at the Polytechnic of Wales (for which see under heading Polytechnic of Wales: Centre for the Study of Welsh Writing in English and November 2018 papers under the same heading).

Material for lectures compiled by Tony Curtis titled 'The Life of the Poem', dated 23 May 1995 and comprising photocopied rough manuscript drafts and photocopied printed poems by Curtis.

Papers relating to a talk by Tony Curtis on his own work and on poet and physician Dannie Abse at the Turin International Book Fair, May 2003, which include advisory notes by event organisers; script of Curtis's talk; and email correspondence between Tony Curtis and Director of Wales Literature Exchange Sioned Puw Rowlands. Also taking part in the talks were author, critic and translator Harri Pritchard-Jones, writer and playwright Eigra Lewis Roberts, poet and translator Silvana Siviero, writer and translator Andrea Bianchi, author, critic and psychiatrist Harri Pritchard-Jones, Professor of English and author Valerio Fissore, Sioned Puw Rowlands, poet and physician Dannie Abse and poet, translator and editor Elin ap Hywel. Emails include somewhat derogatory manuscript annotations by Curtis directed at Harri Pritchard-Jones.

Script of talk by Tony Curtis at an exhibition by sculptor, painter and printmaker Ana Maria Pacheco held at the Harlech Biennale arts festival (year not noted).

Letter to Tony Curtis from Cyril Evans of the National Library of Wales acknowledging Curtis's acceptance of an invitation to present a talk at the Library on 14 November 2018.

Letter from Eiluned Rees, Honorary Secretary of the Llansteffan Historical Society, thanking Tony Curtis for his talk on the First World War as part of Llansteffan Literary Festival 2018.

Script of talk given by Tony Curtis at a ceremony to award landscape painter David Tress the Glyndŵr Prize 2013. With amendments in Curtis's hand.

Printed flyer for talk given by Tony Curtis titled 'Pembrokeshire, Passchendaele and Perth; my family in the Great War', held at the Volcano Theatre, Swansea, 15 November 2018.

See also lecture by Tony Curtis on the life and work of Anglo-Welsh poet and writer John Tripp under heading The Meaning of Apricot Sponge: Selected Writings of John Tripp (Parthian Books, 2010) .

Rough manuscript, draft typescript and photocopied published reviews, comprising:
Reviews by Tony Curtis of: Some Corner of an English Field by Dannie Abse (Hutchinson, 1956); Remembrance of Crimes Past by Dannie Abse (Hutchinson, 1990); Love on the Moor: Poems 1965-68 by Glyn Hughes (Phoenix Press, 1968); Wales - an Anthology by Alice Thomas Ellis (Collins, [1989]); Zennor in Darkness by Helen Dunmore (Viking/Penguin, 1993); Ten Irish Poets, ed. James Simmons (Carcanet, 1974); the poetry of Bryan Stanley (B. S.) Johnson; Hats (collection of poems and songs) by Norman Schwenk (reader's report); Mirages (Cwm Nedd Press, 1975) and The Florentine Sonnets (Cwm Nedd Press, 1976), both by Chris Torrance, with covering letter from Robert [? ]; and A New Life by Bernard Malamud (Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, first published 1961).
Together with letters, 1988, 1992, to Tony Curtis (one annotated by Curtis) from translator and lecturer Christine Pagnoulle, enclosing a translation into French of a review by Curtis; and review by novelist, poet and literary historian Glyn Jones of Tony Curtis's short story 'The Way Back' (for which see under heading Short stories), together with letter, 1977, to Curtis from Glyn Jones.

Printed programmes (one compacted into single folio) relating to an event held, 25 March 2015, in memory of poet and physican Dannie Abse, together with annotated/amended script of speech presumably given by Tony Curtis at the event.

Radio broadcasts of poetry and prose by Tony Curtis, comprising:

Material relating to a radio poem by Tony Curtis titled 'Islands', narrated by Christine Pritchard, Frank Lincoln, Lindsay Evans and W. H. Roberts, to be broadcast on Radio 4, March-April 1975, comprising: copy of poem, scripted for four voices; copy of libretto of Requiem Mass in Latin and English; letter, 3 March 1975, to Tony Curtis from Edith Thomas, secretary to Dafydd Huw Williams, Radio 4 Talks Producer; records of fees paid to Tony Curtis for the broadcast poem; and press cutting relating to the broadcast.

Script of Tony Curtis's short story 'Throwing the Punch', broadcast 28 January 1982 for the Radio 4 programme 'Morning Story'.

Script of Tony Curtis's short story 'Working with Cyril', broadcast 7 December 1982 for the Radio 4 programme 'Morning Story' and read by John Darran.

Script of Tony Curtis's short story 'Umbrella', broadcast 15 March 1984 for the Radio 4 programme 'Morning Story' and read by Marilyn Le Conte.

Script of Tony Curtis's short story 'Film Night', broadcast 9 April 1985 for the Radio 4 programme 'Morning Story', with photocopied letters to Curtis from 'Morning Story' producer Herbert Williams.

Script comprising discussion of poetry compiled and presented by poet and physician Dannie Abse as part of Radio 3's 'Poetry Now' series, broadcast 7 April 1988, Tony Curtis being one of the poets presented in the talk.

Script of undated radio play by Tony Curtis titled 'Canada Dry', with amendments in Curtis's hand. The play appears to be an adaptation of a short story of the same name by Curtis (see under heading Some Kind of Immortality (Cinnamon Press, 2017) / Throwing the Punch / Short stories by Tony Curtis).

Draft and fair-copy scripts of a radio play by Tony Curtis titled 'Occupied Territory', a work which would eventually develop into Curtis's 2021 novel Darkness in the City of Light (see note on brown card paper in Curtis's hand).
See also under headings Plays by Tony Curtis and Darkness in the City of Light (Seren Books, 2021).

Including annotations/amendments in Tony Curtis's hand.

See also under heading Some Kind of Immortality (Cinnamon Press, 2017) / Throwing the Punch / Short stories by Tony Curtis.

Draft typescript prose pieces by Tony Curtis, most of which are annotated in Curtis's hand.
The items comprise:
Critical piece relating to some of the works of poet and physician Dannie Abse titled '"All change!" - Dannie Abse and the C20th Wars'.
Script of what appears to be an address given by Tony Curtis on the occasion of the unveiling of a statue called 'Boy with Book' by sculptor Robert Thomas (1926-1999).
Introduction by Tony Curtis to an unnamed publication which Curtis describes as 'the companion volume to After the First Death: an anthology of Wales and war in the twentieth century [Seren Books, 2009]'.
Piece titled 'My Tenby'.
Draft contents pages of proposed publication by Tony Curtis titled 'Concerning Wales[:] Writings on culture and life in Wales'.
Text of the Gwyn Jones Lecture 2009, given by Tony Curtis, titled '"The Meaning of Apricot Sponge: John Tripp's Taste for Life"'. See also Tony Curtis (ed.): The Meaning of Apricot Sponge: Selected Writings of John Tripp (Parthian Books, 2010) (see, for example: https://www.parthianbooks.com/products/the-meaning-of-apricot-sponge)
Together with one folio of draft piece apparently by the painter David Tress; inscribed at top of folio in Tony Curtis's hand: 'TS by David TRESS. DEC 2007'.

Papers relating to the establishment of the Centre for the Study of Welsh Writing in English at the Polytechnic of Wales, Pontypridd, a project with which Tony Curtis was involved and was a member of its management board. The material includes correspondence, minutes of meetings, proposals and statements, press release, award application, newsletters and press cuttings.

See also John Pikoulis (Alun Lewis) Papers (within the National Library of Wales's collections) under heading Letters to John Pikoulis from various correspondents.

Poetry and other material given to Tony Curtis in the 1970s by other Anglo-Welsh poets and writers who were or who would subsequently become well-known, namely Dannie Abse, Sam Adams, Alison Bielski, Gillian Clarke, Tony Conran, Jeremy Hooker, Nigel Jenkins, Glyn Jones (unnamed, but see, for example: https://www.waterstones.com/book/corgi-series-common-path-the/glyn-jones/9780863817212), Roland Mathias, Christopher Morgan, Robert Morgan, Leslie Norris, John Ormond, Alan Perry, Douglas Phillips, A. G. Prys-Jones, Sally Roberts-Jones, R. George Thomas, John Tripp, Gwyn Williams and John Stuart Williams, which includes draft and fair-copied poems and biographical and bibliographical information relating to the individual poet/writer, together with letters, 1975, to Tony Curtis from Gillian Clarke, Nigel Jenkins and Robert Morgan, and from the Anglo-Welsh poet Raymond Garlick, who is not represented in the body of this material. Multiple drafts of poems show the progression of the poets' works. Poems by Alan Perry include a letter to Perry from the Sunday Times accepting his poem 'The Smell of Baking Bread' for publication.
A. G. Prys-Jones's work includes English translations of 'Aberdaron' by Cynan (Albert Evans-Jones) and 'Ystrad Fflur' by T. Gwynn Jones.

Letters, cards and emails, 2000-2020, to Tony Curtis largely relating to the literary and visual arts, correspondents including the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (requesting an entry on poet and physician Dannie Abse); painter David Tress; painter and lecturer Iwan Gwyn Parry; poet and playwright Gillian Clarke; poet and writer Anne Stevenson; landscape painter Peter Prendergast; and textile artist Rozanne Hawksley.
Letters from [artist] Arthur Morgan encloses printed booklet relating to the Singer & Friedlander/Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2000: this material kept in marked envelope.

Correspondents are not indexed. For access to full range of correspondents, it is recommended that this section of the archive be requested for viewing.

Loose annotated typescript poetry by Tony Curtis. 'Birthday Poem for Dannie at Ninety' is dedicated to poet and physician Dannie Abse; 'A night with Nina' refers to poet and writer Nina Hamnett; 'Sonnet for Elizabeth Fritsch' refers to the potter and ceramic artist of that name.
Different versions of the same poem are grouped together so that Curtis's development of the poem from initial rough draft(s) may be traced.

Material relating to the compilation and production of How Poets Work, edited by Tony Curtis and published by Seren Books in 1996 (see, for example: How Poets Work, see, for example: https://www.serenbooks.com/book/how-poets-work/)
The material comprises:
Overview of the publication and list of contributing poets
Draft poetry by and printed interviews (conducted by Tony Curtis) with some of the contributing poets
Correspondence from Mick (Mike) Felton of Seren Books and from contributing poets Dannie Abse, Simon Armitage, Maura Dooley, Carol Ann Duffy, Helen Dunmore, Douglas Dunn, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Michael Longley, Don Paterson and Anne Stevenson

Material relating to the research and production of a biographical study of poet and physician Dannie Abse in preparation for Tony Curtis's contribution to the Writers of Wales series published by the University of Wales Press/Welsh Arts Council (see, for example: https://www.waterstones.com/book/dannie-abse/tony-curtis/9780708308967).
The material includes:
Copies of published poems, annotated by Dannie Abse, with covering letter from Abse to Tony Curtis.
Letters, 1982-1984, to Tony Curtis from Dannie Abse.
Correspondence to Tony Curtis from the University of Wales Press and from the then Welsh Arts Council relating to the compilation and publication of Tony Curtis's treatise on Dannie Abse in the Writers of Wales series, including letters, 1982, 1984, from Meic Stephens, who was at the time Literature Director of the Welsh Arts Council.
Draft annotated copies and working copies (final working copy dated June 1984) of Tony Curtis's treatise on Dannie Abse in the Writers of Wales series.
Review of Tony Curtis's treatise on Dannie Abse in the Writers of Wales series, annotated by Curtis.
Prose piece by Dannie Abse titled 'I Accuse' from 'The Poet, the Philosopher, a Lexicographer and the British Art Show 4'.
What appears to be a review of Dannie Abse's collection of poetry White Coat, Purple Coat: Collected Poems 1948–1988 (Hutchinson, 1989).
Photocopied material relating to Dannie Abse and his work.

Photocopied typescript draft of Tony Curtis's treatise on poet and physician Dannie Abse, subsequently published by the University of Wales Press/Welsh Arts Council in 1985 as part of the 'Writers of Wales' series. Draft includes manuscript corrections/suggestions by poet and writer Glyn Jones.

Manuscript poem (one emendation) by poet and physician Dannie Abse titled 'Among a Heap of Stones'. Signed and inscribed by Abse: '(Just finished - I think - before meeting Tony [Curtis] and Margaret [Curtis] at the [?Mughal] Emperor, Oct 21st 2000.'