Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1951-1960 (Creation)
Level of description
File
Extent and medium
276 ff.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Vernon Watkins (1906-1967), poet, was the second of three children of William and Sarah Watkins. He was born in Maesteg, Glamorgan, on 27 June 1906 but grew up in Swansea, Glamorgan, and on the Gower. He attended Repton School, Derbyshire, 1920-1924, then (for one year) studied modern languages at Magdalene College, Cambridge. He was briefly a clerk at Lloyds Bank in Cardiff but after a breakdown he returned home to Swansea and moved to the Lloyds Bank branch in St Helens. He served with RAF Police and Intelligence, 1941-1946, but otherwise remained with Lloyds for the remainder of his working life. In 1941 he published his first collection of poems, Ballad of the Mari Lwyd (London, 1941), followed by The Lamp and the Veil (London, 1945), Selected Poems (Norfolk, Conn., 1948), The Lady with the Unicorn (London, 1948), The Death Bell (London, 1954), Cypress and Acacia (London, 1959), Affinities (London, 1962), and Fidelities (London, 1968) which appeared posthumously. As a poet he was scrupulous, working through numerous drafts to reach a final version and often undertaking further revision after publication. In addition to original poetry he translated European verse into English, including Heine's The North Sea (London, 1955), and wrote essays on other poets. He corresponded widely with literary figures and became friends with the likes of W. B. Yeats, T. S. Eliot, Philip Larkin and, in particular, Dylan Thomas. In 1944 he married Gwendoline (Gwen) Mary Davies (b. 1923), a colleague at RAF Intelligence, and they had five children. Following his retirement in 1966 he lectured at the University College of Swansea. He was then appointed Visiting Professor of Poetry at the University of Washington but died on 8 October 1967, shortly after arriving in Seattle to take up his post. Some of his previously unpublished and uncollected works appeared in Uncollected Poems (London, 1969), Selected Verse Translations, ed. by Ruth Pryor (London, 1977), The Breaking of the Wave (Ipswich, 1979), and Ballad of the Outer Dark, ed. by Ruth Pryor (London, 1979).
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
The file comprises letters from various people including D. Brynmor Anthony, Vernon Watkins (6, 1 incomplete) and Gwen Watkins, William Cookson, Howard Griffin, Vincent Lines (3), Vera Bassett, Neville Braybrooke (4), K. M. Elisabeth Murray, Louis Bonnerot, Percival R. Kirby, Sir Ifor Evans (2), Charles L. H. Duchemin (4), Arnold Palmer (3), William Blissett, Raymond Garlick (2), John Buckland Wright, August Closs (4), D. Emrys Evans, Helen Sutherland (2), David Bell (2), Megan Lloyd George, T. Charles Edwards, Valerie Wynne-Williams (2), J. E. Jones, William Hayward (4), John P[iper], Sir John Cecil Williams (2), Donald Nicholl (5), A. Robert Caponigri, Prof. Thomas Jones (3), Elwyn Evans (2), Alun Oldfield-Davies (3, 1 incomplete), Canon Walter Hussey, Alan Pryce-Jones, Geraint Gruffydd (2), Harman Grisewood, V. E. Nash-Williams, Kenneth Clark, Dr Charles Burns (incomplete), Colin Wilcockson, Janet Stone and W. B. Dalton.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Arranged chronologically.
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Generated finding aid
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
Formerly Group C Box 13.
Note
Preferred citation: CT3/3
Alternative identifier(s)
Virtua system control number
GEAC system control number
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Cookson, William, 1939- (Subject)
- Griffin, John Howard, 1920-1980 (Subject)
- Lines, Vincent, 1909-1968 (Subject)
- Bassett, Vera, 1912-1997 (Subject)
- Braybrooke, Neville, 1923-2001 (Subject)
- Murray, K. M. Elisabeth (Katherine Maud Elisabeth), 1909-1998 (Subject)
- Bonnerot, Louis, 1897-1974 (Subject)
- Cecil-Williams, John Lias Cecil, Sir, 1892-1964 (Subject)
- Kirby, Percival R. (Percival Robson), 1887-1970 (Subject)
- Evans, B. Ifor (Benjamin Ifor), 1899-1982 (Subject)
- Sutherland, Helen, 1881- (Subject)
- Duchemin, Charles L. H, 1886-1965 (Subject)
- Palmer, Arnold Nottage, Honourable (Subject)
- Blissett, William (Subject)
- Garlick, Raymond (Subject)
- Buckland Wright, John, 1897-1954 (Subject)
- Closs, August (Subject)
- Bell, David, 1915-1959 (Subject)
- Charles-Edwards, T. (Thomas), 1902- (Subject)
- Wynne-Williams, Valerie (Subject)
- Hayward, William, 1931-1967 (Subject)
- Jones, J. E. (John Edward), 1905-1970 (Subject)
- Piper, John, 1903-1992 (Subject)
- Nicholl, Donald, 1923- (Subject)
- Evans, Elwyn (Subject)
- Grisewood, Harman, 1906-1997 (Subject)
- Nash-Williams, V. E. (Victor Erle), 1897-1955 (Subject)
- Oldfield-Davies, Alun, 1905-1988 (Subject)
- Hussey, Walter (Subject)
- Caponigri, A. Robert (Aloysius Robert), 1915- (Subject)
- Jones, Thomas, 1910-1972 (Subject)
- Dalton, William B., b. 1868 (Subject)
- Pryce-Jones, Alan, 1908-2000 (Subject)
- Clark, Kenneth, 1903-1983 (Subject)
- Burns, Charles Louis Crawford, 1895?-1964 (Subject)
- Wilcockson, Colin (Subject)
- Stone, Janet 1912-1988 (Subject)
- Hayman, Patrick, 1915- (Subject)
- Lloyd George, Megan, 1902-1966 (Subject)
- Gruffydd, R. Geraint (Subject)
- Evans, D. Emrys (David Emrys), 1891- (Subject)