Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1908-1960 (Creation)
Level of description
File
Extent and medium
63 ff.
Placed in melinex sleeves within ringed box at NLW.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
William Henry Davies (1871-1940), poet and writer, was born in Newport, Monmouthshire, the son of Francis Boase Davies and Mary Ann Evans. Following his father's death and his mother's remarriage he and his siblings were adopted by their grandparents. After leaving school he became a picture-frame maker's apprentice. In June 1893 he sailed to America, arriving in New York virtually penniless. He spent the next few years tramping across America, begging and undertaking casual labour, with occasional voyages to Britain working on cattle-ships. He then decided to go to the Klondike but while en route, he lost his right leg after falling under a train in Renfrew, Ontario, on 20 March 1899. After convalescing he returned to Britain. He lived in common lodging houses in London and survived by peddling wares and living off the weekly allowance of ten shillings left to him by his grandmother. He began writing poetry at this time but it was not until 1905 that he succeeded in getting his work published; he managed to save enough money to pay for the printing of two hundred copies of The Soul's Destroyer ([London], [1905]). Several further volumes of poetry and collections appeared between 1905 and 1939. His most famous prose work, Autobiography of a Super-Tramp (London, 1908), was followed by four novels, including The True Traveller (London, 1912) and The Adventures of Johnny Walker, Tramp (London, 1926). Other prose works include Beggars (London, 1909), Nature (London, 1914), My Birds (London, 1933) and My Garden (London, 1933). In 1905 he was befriended by the poet Edward Thomas (1878-1917) and his wife Helen, who in 1907 rented a cottage for him in Sevenoaks, Kent. He returned to London in 1914. Davies married Helen Payne (d. 1979) on 5 February 1923, having met her at a bus stop in London. They lived in East Grinstead, Sussex, before moving back to Sevenoaks, then Oxted, Surrey, and finally to Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, where Davies died on 26 September 1940.
Archival history
The Cazenove correspondence (ff. 1-29) and the three typescript poems (ff. 52-54) were purchased by Hockey from Bertram Rota in October 1947 (see ff. 38-39).
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
David J. Holmes Autographs; Hamilton, NY; Purchase; May 2005; 0200505378.
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Letters and other papers of, or relating to, W. H. Davies, 1908-1960, accumulated by his biographer Lawrence Hockey of Newport.
The collection includes twenty-six letters and postcards from W. H. Davies to his literary agent C. F. Cazenove, concerning his literary activities, 1908-1910 (ff. 1, 3-29), and six, mainly personal, letters from Davies to Lawrence Hockey, 1930-1938 (ff. 30-35), as well as letters to Hockey, mainly concerning Davies, from Augustus John, 1941, 1942 (ff. 36-37), Bertram Rota, 22 October 1947 (ff. 38-39), Louis Blake Duff, 1 January 1949 (ff. 40-43), John Gawsworth, 1949 (ff. 44-45), and Huw Menai, 10 February 1955 (f. 51), and a letter from C[harlotte] F[rances] Shaw (wife of G. B. Shaw) to Cazenove, 1 August 1908 (f. 2). Also included are miscellaneous papers relating to W. H. Davies, including typescript copies for publication of three poems, 'The White Horse', [1927] (published in The London Mercury, 15 (1926-27), 344) and 'The Little Devil', [1930], and 'Love Lights his Fire', [1930] (both published in The London Mercury, 23 (1930-31), 105) (ff. 52-54); a photostat copy, [1946], of his will (f. 56); three photographs (ff. 57-59); and newspaper cuttings, [?1930s] (f. 60), 1960 (ff. 62-63); as well as an unpublished letter, 1 February 1955, from Hockey to the Western Mail, in defence of Huw Menai and criticising Dylan Thomas (ff. 47-50).
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Arranged at NLW as follows: letters (arranged chronologically); other papers.
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Readers consulting modern papers in the National Library of Wales are required to abide by the conditions set out in information provided when applying for their Readers' Tickets, whereby the reader shall become responsible for compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998 in relation to any processing by them of personal data obtained from modern records held at the Library.
Conditions governing reproduction
Usual copyright laws apply. Information regarding ownership of W. H. Davies and Augustus John copyrights can be found at http://tyler.hrc.utexas.edu/ (viewed June 2012).
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
English.
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Folio 2 torn.
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Text
Related units of description
Publication note
The papers were used by Hockey for his University of Wales MA thesis 'The Life and Work of W. H. Davies' (1956) (see NLW, University of Wales thesis 1956/20).
Notes area
Note
Title based on contents.
Note
Preferred citation: NLW MS 23937D.
Alternative identifier(s)
Virtua system control number
GEAC system control number
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Western Mail. (Subject)
- Davies, W. H. (William Henry), 1871-1940 -- Correspondence. (Subject)
- Cazenove, C. F. -- Correspondence. (Subject)
- Hockey, Lawrence W., 1904- -- Correspondence. (Subject)
- Thomas, Dylan, 1914-1953 -- Criticism and interpretation. (Subject)
- Hockey, Lawrence W., 1904- (Subject)
- Cazenove, C. F. (Subject)
- John, Augustus, 1878-1961 (Subject)
- Rota, Bertram, 1903-1966. (Subject)
- Duff, Louis Blake. (Subject)
- Gawsworth, John, 1912-1970 (Subject)
- Menai, Huw, 1886-1961. (Subject)
- Shaw, Charlotte Frances Payne-Townshend. (Subject)
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Description follows NLW guidelines based on ISAD(G) 2nd ed.; AACR2; and LCSH
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
August 2012.
Language(s)
- English
Script(s)
Sources
Archivist's note
Description compiled by Rhys Morgan Jones;