Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1962-1978 (Creation)
Level of description
File
Extent and medium
NLW MS 23193B: 258 ff.
NLW MS 23194B: 196 ff.
Guarded and filed at NLW.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Phyllis Playter was born in 1894 in Kansas City, Missouri, to Canadian-American parents. She first met John Cowper Powys in March 1921 during a lecture tour of the United States and subsequently became Powys's long-term companion from 1923 until his death forty years later. Herself a gifted writer and poet, Playter's own career was largely subsumed in that of Powys's, upon whose work she nevertheless exerted significant influence. In his letters and diaries Powys commonly refers to Playter as 'the T.T.' (the 'Tiny Thin' or 'The Tao'). Following Powys's death in 1963, Playter continued to live in their last home at 1 Waterloo, Blaenau Ffestiniog, until her own death in 1982.
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
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.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Arranged chronologically at NLW.
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Usual copyright laws apply. Information regarding the ownership of Phyllis Playter copyright can be found at http://tyler.hrc.utexas.edu/ (viewed February 2016)
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Language and script notes
English.
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
Title based on contents.
Note
Preferred citation: NLW MSS 23193-4B.
Alternative identifier(s)
Virtua system control number
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Powys, John Cowper, 1872-1963 -- Death and burial (Subject)
- Davies, Frederick, 1916-1990 -- Family -- Correspondence (Subject)
- Playter, Phyllis -- Correspondence (Subject)
- University of Cambridge (Subject)
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
Language(s)
- English