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Commonplace book of Phyllis Playter, begun [?1937] but which may contain inserts dating from the 1960s or 1970s. The book contains copied selections of poetry and prose, some from Classical sources, and includes an incomplete prose piece by Phyllis Playter entitled 'Winter in Dorchester' (ff. 1-verso), John Cowper Powys's poem 'Y Wyddfa The Tomb' (ff. 13-verso), 'Poem to JCP By Littleton Alfred October 8, 1948' (ff. 21 verso-22), and poems - one entitled 'Early Spring: New York' - by Gamel Woolsey (ff. 26 verso-27 verso, 28 verso), together with 'Pais Dinogad' (reputedly dating from the 7th century AD) and verses entitled 'Hen Benillion', with English translations (ff. 44 verso - 46). There are also diary entries made by Phyllis Playter for the inclusive dates 4 - 6 January 1937 (ff. 4-5), 'J's List of the attitude of the members of his family to "Our Maker"' (followed by the religious views of John Cowper Powys's siblings (ff. 50 verso-52 verso)), and a bibliography of John Cowper Powys's works (ff. 54-verso). Originally loose in the volume, now inserted at the front, are copies of Rainer Maria Rilke's poem 'The Bowl of Roses' and of George Barker's 'Some Confusions' in Phyllis Playter's hand, with some accompanying notes, along with a fragment of an envelope, postmark 2 July 1959, addressed to John Cowper Powys at Blaenau Ffestiniog, with rough memoranda on the back in Phyllis Playter's hand. Also originally loose in the volume are press cuttings, including poetry (now inserted at f. 18) and an envelope containing copied extracts of poetry, a birthday card made out of very thin paper and a stencil-like paper design, a stitched card depicting a cross in an embossed frame, and cut-out pictures (now inserted at f. 39). Remains of dried flowers are inserted between ff. 7 verso and 8 and between ff. 48 verso and 49, and a feather between ff. 19 verso and 20. Ff. 2, 6 verso-7, 12, 14-17 verso, 18 verso-19, 20 verso, 22 verso, 25 verso, 28, 30, 33, 38 verso, 40, 44, 48 verso, 50, 53 verso, 55, 56-verso, 57 verso, and 61 verso are blank.

Letters, 1889-1914 and undated, to Mary Cowper Powys from her children (other than John Cowper Powys) and grandchildren as follows: son Albert Reginald (Bertie) (8 letters + 1 poem), [1891]-1908 and undated (one letter also signed by Bertie's wife Dorothy Mary Powys) (with notes on envelopes in Mary Cowper Powys's hand); son William Ernest (Willie) Powys (22 letters + 1 fragment + 1 poem), [1899]-1914 and undated (with notes on envelopes in Mary Cowper Powys's hand); daughter Gertrude Powys (3), 1889 and undated; son Llewelyn Powys (1), [?1906]; grandson Theodore ('Charles ('Dicky')') Powys (son of Theodore Francis Powys) (2), 1913 and undated; and grandson Littleton Alfred Powys (son of John Cowper Powys) (1), [1909]. Many of the letters are illustrated with ink and/or pencil drawings by the correspondent.

Letters to John Cowper Powys from his son Littleton Alfred Powys and the latter's close friend Dinah White, containing mostly personal news, the final phase of the correspondence chronicling Littleton Alfred's declining health.

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.

Letters to John Cowper Powys from his mother Mary Cowper Powys (1), 1914, his sister-in-law Violet Powys (wife of Theodore Francis Powys) (1) (partial), [c. 1915], his father the Reverend Charles Francis Powys (2), 1918, his sister-in-law Alyse Gregory (wife of Llewelyn Powys) (7), 1924-1925, 1929, 1939-1940, 1960, his brother Llewelyn Powys (4), 1925, 1927 and undated, his sister-in-law Mabel Powys (first wife of Littleton Charles Powys) (2), [1939] and undated, his sister Katie (Philippa) Powys (1 + 1 postcard), 1941, 1949; his sisters Gertrude Powys, Lucy Penny and 'Marz' [?Marian Powys] (1 telegram), 1942; his brother Littleton Charles Powys (1 telegram), [1942]; his sister Lucy Penny (1, with an enclosed letter from Lucy to Phyllis Playter) 1946; his companion Phyllis Playter (1), undated; his son Littleton Alfred Powys (1 [?Christmas card]), undated; and Ernest Angell (aka Peter Grey), father of Powys's nephew Peter Powys Grey (1), undated; also an envelope (contents removed) from his sister Marian Powys (1954).

Letters from John Cowper Powys to his son Littleton Alfred Powys.

Miscellaneous material of or relating to Father Littleton Alfred Powys, son of John Cowper Powys, including a collection of Littleton Alfred's poems.

Letters largely to and between various members of the Powys family, as follows: To Lucy Penny from her mother Mary Cowper Powys (5), 1911-1912, 1914; to Marian (May) Powys from her mother Mary Cowper Powys (1), [1914]; to Margaret Powys from her son Littleton Alfred Powys (1), 1926; to Gamel Woolsey from Mary (Molly) MacCarthy (1), undated, which refers to Gamel's then contentious work One Way of Love (1930) (with a note by Powys biographer Morine Krissdottir); to Gertrude Powys from [her brother Theodore Francis Powys], (3), 1941, 1946 and undated (typescript copies); to Gertrude Powys from her sister Lucy Penny (1 postcard), [1944]; to Marian Powys from 'E. R.' (1), 1947; to Peter Powys Grey from his mother Marian Powys (1), 1948; to Bernard O'Neill from Philippa (Katie) Powys (1), 1949 (photocopy); to Francis Llewellyn Powys from his cousin Littleton Alfred Powys (1 postcard), 1951; to Littleton [?Charles] Powys from an unnamed correspondent (the letter lacking a signature and appearing incomplete) (1), 1953; to George Frederick Sims from John Cowper Powys's nephew Francis Llewellyn Powys (1), 1958 (photocopy); to Alyse Gregory, widow of Llewelyn Powys, from Francis Llewellyn Powys (1), 1960; to Jill Olson from Katie Powys (1), 1961 (photocopy) (with note by Morine Krissdottir); to Lucy Penny from her sister Marian Powys (1), [1963]; to Lucy Penny from Powys biographer Marie Canavaggia (including a note to Phyllis Playter) (1), 1964; to Lucy Penny from her niece Isobel Powys Marks (1), 1966; to Lucy Penny from her niece Rose Dyer (1), 1969; to Lucy Penny from her nephew Gilfrid Powys (1), 1969; to Lucy Penny from her great-nephew Michael (2) and her great-niece Lucy (1), 1969; to Francis Llewellyn Powys from C. Benson Roberts (1), 1970; to John Cowper Powys's brother William Ernest (Willie) Powys from Agnes [ ? ] in Poland, enclosing a photograph [?from Adrian Upfield]) (1), 2002; together with undated letters to Alyse Gregory from Lucy Penny (1) and Ty (Barbara) Powys Grey (née Tyler), first wife of Peter Powys Grey (1), an undated letter to Bernard O'Neill from Lucy Penny (photocopy), and an undated postcard from Marian Powys to an unnamed recipient (on the dorse of which is a printed notice of an auction of some of Marian Powys's lacemaking stock upon her retirement). Included separately in an envelope are photographs of Marian Powys and Peter Powys Grey, [?1936], and an obituary of Gertrude Powys, [1952].

Two poems written in Amelia Powys's hand, with a note on f. 4 by her husband, the Rev. Littleton Charles Powys; a printed memorial hymn for the Rev. John Keble (1792-1866), with the intials 'E[mily] (i.e. Amelia) P.' at top left-hand corner; a book of devotional passages inscribed to Amelia Powys from her sister, Susanna Smith, and dated 1834, with a later inscription, dated June 1928, to 'L. A. Powys' (presumably Father Littleton Alfred Powys, son of John Cowper Powys) from his aunt, Gertrude Powys, with devotional passages written out at the back of the volume by [Littleton Alfed Powys] and on the back cover by [Susanna Smith]; drawings and paintings by Amelia Powys (one inscribed 'Dearest Littleton Albert's ship' [in Amelia Powys's hand], one possibly depicting her grandson, John Cowper Powys, as an infant) and by her son, Charles Francis Powys, with notes by her granddaughter, Marian Powys; a dried pansy flower, with the inscription 'Charley' (i.e. Charles Francis Powys) [in Amelia Powys's hand]; and two letters from Amelia Powys to her mother, Amelia Moilliet, with a note dated May 1935 [by Amelia Powys's grandson, Littleton Charles Powys].

Journals and other printed items collected by Dinah White relating to Father Littleton Alfred Powys and other members of the Powys family.
The items comprise obituaries of Littleton Alfred Powys, 1954 (ff. 1-2), and Littleton Charles Powys, 1955 (f. 3); The Shirburnian, 44.2 (Summer 1954), inscribed (f. 5) to Dinah White from John Cowper Powys, 8 August 1954, printing Littleton Alfred Powys's poem 'Ode to the West Wind'; The Beda Review, 7.8 (September 1955), inscribed 'For Dinah White from Littleton Powys Sept 9 1955' (inside front cover) and including an article on Littleton Alfred Powys; three issues of the Aylesford Review, 1.7 (Spring 1957) (articles (and reviews) on Elizabeth Myers, Littleton C. Powys and John Cowper Powys), 1.8 (Summer 1957) (an article on Littleton Alfred Powys), and 5.1 (Winter 1962-1963) (articles on Littleton Alfred Powys (one by Dinah White) and John Cowper Powys); A Review of English Literature, 4.1 (January 1963) (number in honour of John Cowper Powys); and a printed order of service, 1987, for Lucy Penny's funeral (on 10 November 1986), with a letter, 6 July 1987, to Dinah White from Lucy's son-in-law Gerard Casey (f. 166). Also included is a typescript copy of Part 1 of Mervin Havard-Brown's thesis 'Philosophy in the Works of John Cowper Powys', [1966] (ff. 174-201).