Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1969-1971 / (Creation)
Level of description
Item
Extent and medium
6 ff.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Writer and artist Brenda Chamberlain (1912-1971) was born and raised in Bangor, Caernarfonshire, and educated privately before embarking on her art studies at the Royal Academy, London in 1931. In 1935 Chamberlain married the artist John Petts. The following year the couple moved to Llanllechid, where they set up the Caseg Press, producing postcards and bookplates, and also the Caseg Broadsheets - featuring poetry by Chamberlain and others - with the poet and writer Alun Lewis. Chamberlain's marriage to Petts ended in 1946. Thereafter she lived briefly in Germany before settling on Bardsey Island, where she wrote and painted until, in 1961, she moved to the Greek island of Idhra. In 1967 Chamberlain returned to Bangor, where she died in 1971. Amongst Chamberlain's major published works are the poetic anthology The Green Heart (London, 1958) (dedicated to Karl von Laer), Tide-Race (London, 1962), an account of her life on Bardsey, her only novel The Water Castle (London, 1964), A Rope of Vines (London, 1965), chronicling her time on Ydra, Poems With Drawings (London, 1969), and Alun Lewis and the Making of the Caseg Broadsheets (London, 1969).
Name of creator
Biographical history
Meic Stephens, poet and editor, was born in Trefforest and educated at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth and the University of Rennes. From 1962 to 1966, he taught French in Ebbw Vale. He established The Triskel Press at Merthyr Tydfil, where he lived at the time, and also launched the periodical Poetry Wales, which he edited from 1965 until 1973; also served for a year on the staff of the Western Mail. In 1967, Stephens was appointed Literary Director with the Welsh Arts Council. He published his first poetic works in Triad (1963). His work Linguistic Minorities in Western Europe (Llandysul, 1976) involved a detailed study of culture and politics in sixteen European states. Amongst the works edited by Stephens are an anthology of Anglo-Welsh poetry titled The Lilting House (with John Stuart Williams, London and Llandybïe, 1969), Artists in Wales (three volumes, Llandysul, 1971, 1973, 1977), the Writers of Wales series (with R. Brinley Jones, 1970- ), the poetic anthology Green Horse (with Peter Finch, Swansea, 1978), and Cydymaith i Lenyddiaeth Cymru (Llandysul, 1986).
Name of creator
Biographical history
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Mr Colin Huggett; Tregarth; Purchase (with NLW ex 1934 and additional Glyn Jones Papers); August 1998; B1998/26.
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Four letters and a card, 1969-1971, from the artist and writer Brenda Chamberlain to Meic Stephens, mainly concerning her contribution to his book, Artists in Wales (Llandysul, 1971) (ff. 38, 40-43), together with one letter from Chamberlain, 1970, addressed to Elan Closs Roberts, relating to the Welsh Arts Council's 'Dial-a-poem' project (f. 39).
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 Brenda Chamberlain copyright can be found at http://tyler.hrc.utexas.edu/ (viewed June 2009).
Language of material
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 MS 23699E, ff. 38-43.
Alternative identifier(s)
Virtua system control number
GEAC system control number
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Chamberlain, Brenda -- Correspondence (Subject)