File NLW MS 24062E - Letters to Dinah White

Identity area

Reference code

NLW MS 24062E

Title

Letters to Dinah White

Date(s)

  • 1953-1956 (Creation)

Level of description

File

Extent and medium

33 ff.

Placed in melinex sleeves within ringed box at NLW.

Context area

Name of creator

Biographical history

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.

Name of creator

Biographical history

Name of creator

Biographical history

Archival history

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Content and structure area

Scope and content

Twenty-three letters and postcards, 1953-1956, to Dinah White from various correspondents, including Eric Harvey, 20 February 1954 (f. 6), Phyllis Playter, June 1954-December 1955 (ff. 15, 24), Lucy Amelia Penny, June-September 1955 (ff. 18-19, 23), and Michael Hanbury, January 1956 (ff. 25-26). The letters mainly concern the illness and death of Father Littleton Alfred Powys (ff. 1-14) and the hospitalisation and death of Littleton Charles Powys (ff. 19-23). There are also letters, photographs and an obituary relating to the late monastic founder Dom Aelred Carlyle (ff. 25-30).

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

System of arrangement

Arranged chronologically at NLW.

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

Conditions governing reproduction

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

For a letter to Dinah White from Gerard Casey, dated 6 July 1987, see NLW MS 24063E, f. 166.

Related descriptions

Notes area

Note

Title based on contents.

Note

Preferred citation: NLW MS 24062E.

Alternative identifier(s)

Virtua system control number

vtls006756801

Access points

Subject access points

Place access points

Genre access points

Description control area

Description identifier

Institution identifier

Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru = The National Library of Wales

Rules and/or conventions used

Status

Level of detail

Dates of creation revision deletion

Language(s)

  • English

Script(s)

Sources

Accession area

Related subjects

Related genres

Related places

Physical storage

  • Text: NLW MS 24062E