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Forty-six manuscript and typescript letters, [c. 1890]-[c. 1934], from Berta Ruck, mostly to her father, Col Arthur Ashley Ruck, [1920s]-[c. 1934], containing mainly personal and family news.
Also included are two letters to her grandmother Mary Anne Ruck, [c. 1890] (ff. 1-4), and a carbon copy letter to her sister-in-law, Georgina Ruck, 15 July 1932 (ff. 86-91). Most of the letters were written either from home or while on holiday in Austria, France, Germany and Sweden. There are references to Oliver Onions (ff. 6-100 passim), Geoffrey Moss (f. 6), Sir Ray Lankester (ff. 9 verso, 10 verso-11, 12, 31, 32, 66), Ménie Muriel FitzGerald (ff. 13-17, 18, 29, 46-47, 56, 59), Alec Waugh (ff. 26, 35-36) and Vita Sackville West (f. 46); she also describes her car accident on 14 July 1932 (ff. 88-91). There are ink drawings by Ruck on f. 2 recto-verso.

Notebook of Berta Ruck, May 1930-March 1931, containing journal entries, including accounts of her visits to Sweden, July 1930 (ff. 14-22), Germany, July, November 1930 (ff. 22 verso-28 verso, 69 verso-81 verso), Vienna, Austria, July-August, November-December 1930 (ff. 28 verso-42 verso, 82-91), and the French Riviera, August-September 1930 (ff. 44-61), and notes for fiction. Some fifty-two letters, cards and telegrams from family and friends, photographs, cuttings, programmes and other ephemera have been pasted in.
The correspondents include Marda Vanne, June-[December] 1930 (ff. 4, 62, 91), Oliver Onions, July-[August] 1930 (ff. 13, 30, 53), Alec Waugh, 22 June 1930 (f. 38), Hermon Ould, 30 September 1930 (f. 65 verso), Vicki Baum, 4 November 1930 (f. 78), Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies, [December] 1930 (f. 91), Norman Haire, [December] 1930 (f. 114 verso), Vita Sackville-West, 3 November 1930 (f. 121), and Cynthia Stockley, [December] 1930 (f. 129). The volume contains sketches and drawings (ff. 2 verso, 28 verso-29, 48-49, 87, 92 verso, 109, 123 verso) and poetry (ff. 67 verso, 73a-b, 88, 91-92 verso, 94 verso, 101 verso) by Ruck. The photographs include three of her with her sons (inside front cover, ff. 54, 60; the latter was published in A Story-Teller Tells the Truth (London, 1935), facing p. 166). Among the friends and acquaintances referred to in the volume are Ernst Hanfstaengl (79 verso, 80 verso-81 verso) and the writers Rebecca West (ff. 45 verso, 50 verso -51), Geoffrey Moss (ff. 49 verso-50, 54 verso, 57 verso), Vicky Baum (f. 71 verso) and Otto Friedländer (ff. 82 verso, 83, 84).

Notebook, July 1924-July 1926, of Berta Ruck containing diary entries and impressions of her visits to Switzerland, Paris, Germany and Austria; theatre programmes, letters to her and press cuttings relating to her work and to contemporary events have been pasted in.