Item NLW MS 23699E, f. 149. - Llythyr gan Saunders Lewis,

Identity area

Reference code

NLW MS 23699E, f. 149.

Title

Llythyr gan Saunders Lewis,

Date(s)

  • 3 Rhagfyr 1927 / (Creation)

Level of description

Item

Extent and medium

1 f.

Context area

Name of creator

Biographical history

Saunders Lewis, dramatist, poet, historian and literary critic, was born in Wallasey, Cheshire to a family of prominent Welsh Calvinistic Methodists. He was educated at a boys's school in Liscard and at Liverpool University, where he studied English and French. His academic career was interrupted by the First World War, in which Lewis served with the South Wales Borderers, but he quickly resumed his studies at the end of the conflict, and, having graduated, worked as librarian in Glamorgan before taking up a post as lecturer in the Welsh department of the University College of Swansea. In 1925, Lewis was one of the pioneering figures involved in establishing the National Party of Wales (later known as Plaid Cymru) and was made President of the fledgeling organisation the following year. Having written about the Roman Catholic church for a number of years, in 1932 Lewis converted to the faith also practised by his wife Margaret. In 1936, Lewis, D. J. Williams and Lewis Valentine set fire to the Royal Airforce's Bombing School in Penyberth on the Lleyn Peninsula, an event which has gone down in the annals of Welsh history and which earned Lewis imprisonment in Wormwood Scrubs and dismissal from his lecturing post in Swansea. He was eventually appointed senior lecturer in Welsh at the University of Cardiff but retired in 1957 to devote his time to writing. Lewis's litarary output is prodigious and he is considered by many to be the most important Welsh literary and political figure of the twentieth century; it is considered that his radio address for 1962, Tynged yr Iaith, was the direct instigating force behind the establishment of the Welsh language movement Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg.

Archival history

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Mrs Gwenda Trow (daughter of D. Llewelyn Jones); Llanidloes; Donation; August 2001; A2001/42.

Content and structure area

Scope and content

A letter, 3 December 1927, in Welsh, from Saunders Lewis to the Rev. D. Llewelyn Jones, Pontrhydygroes, Cardiganshire, relating to Lewis's Williams Pantycelyn (London, 1927), reviewed by D. Llewelyn Jones in Baner ac Amserau Cymru, 20 December 1927, p. 7, and 27 December 1927, p. 5.
There is an explanatory note by D. Llewelyn Jones on the envelope (f. 149a verso).

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Language of material

Script of material

Language and script notes

Welsh.

Physical characteristics and technical requirements

Finding aids

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Existence and location of originals

Existence and location of copies

Related units of description

This letter was written in response to D. Llewelyn Jones's letter of 30 November 1927, now NLW MS 22725E, ff. 35-36 verso.

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Notes area

Note

Title based on contents.

Note

Preferred citation: NLW MS 23699E, f. 149.

Alternative identifier(s)

Virtua system control number

vtls004404260

GEAC system control number

(WlAbNL)0000404260

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Description control area

Description identifier

Institution identifier

Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru = The National Library of Wales

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Physical storage

  • Text: NLW MS 23699E, f. 149.