Showing 5 results

Archival description
Powys, John Cowper, 1872-1963 -- Death and burial
Print preview View:

Letters from Eric Harvey

Twenty-two letters, 1956-1965, to Phyllis Playter from Eric Harvey of Macdonald & Co. Ltd, publishers, London. Along with personal news, the letters mainly discuss the publication of John Cowper Powys's works, including the libel case involving Powys's novel Weymouth Sands (1934) and its subsequent reprinting, by Macdonald, in 1963. There are references also to the death of John Cowper Powys in June 1963, the death of Powys's nephew, Charles Powys, in Kenya in 1964, and to Phyllis Playter's proposed voyage to South America early in 1964. Enclosed with one letter, dated 21 September 1963, are letters to Phyllis Playter from Harvey's children, Richard and Juliet.

Letters from Lucy Penny

Thirty-four letters and two postcards, 1962-1963, to Phyllis Playter from John Cowper Powys's sister, Lucy Penny. The letters contain mainly family news, including the deaths of John Cowper Powys, his sister, Katie (Philippa) Powys, and his sister-in-law, Elizabeth Powys (née Myers), second wife of Littleton Charles Powys, together with references to members of the Powys circle of friends and acquaintances.

Letters from other friends and acquaintances

Letters to Phyllis Playter from Father J. Hamilton C. Johnson (1), 1929; Marianne Moore (1), 1929; Edgar Lee Masters (6), 1930-1932 (typescript copies); Helen Dreiser (1), 1933; Bernard O'Neill (2), 1945; Alan Denson (1), 1955; George F. Sims (1), 1956; John Redwood Anderson (7 letters and 1 postcard), 1959, 1961-1963, his wife Gwyneth Anderson (3), 1963 and undated, and from both John Redwood and Gwyneth Anderson (1), [1963] (references to the death of John Cowper Powys); Mary Truesdale (1),1960; Dorothy May Meech (1), 1960; Kenneth Hopkins (1), 1961; Ichiro Hara (6), 1962, 1964, 1974, 1979; Minoru Akiyama (1), 1962; George Steiner (1), 1962; Brocard Sewell (1), 1963, and Moray McLaren (1), 1963, regarding a proposed radio broadcast of John Cowper Powys's son Littleton Alfred Powys's poem 'Ode to the West Wind'; Angus Wilson (1 telegram), 1963 (expressing sympathy on the death of John Cowper Powys); Harold A. Van Kirk (1), 1963; G. Wilson Knight (1), 1964; Harold P. Collins (5),1965-1966; Gerald Pollinger (1), 1975 (with typescript copy of a letter from Phyllis Playter to Gerald Pollinger dated 23 October 1975) (beginning of draft letter to G[erald Pollinger] in Francis Llewellyn Powys's hand on f. 100 verso); and David Jenkins of the National Library of Wales (1), 1979; together with undated letters from Josiah Titzell (1), Gladys Ficke (1), and Fred [ ? ] of Birkenhead. Some of the letters are inscribed with notes by Powys biographer Morine Krissdottir.

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.

Phyllis Playter letters to Frederick Davies

Two hundred and eighty-eight letters, 1962-1978, from Phyllis Player to Frederick Davies, giving an account of John Cowper Powys shortly before his death in Blaenau Ffestiniog in June 1963 and discussing the posthumous growth of interest in his writings, particularly among members of Cambridge University. Some of the letters have been published in Frederick Davies, 'Recollections of John Cowper Powys and Phyllis Playter', The Powys Review, 19 (1986), 58-66, and 20 (1987), 47-57. Also included are a few letters from Phyllis Playter to Frederick Davies's mother.

Playter, Phyllis