Inventory of the Llewelyn Powys Manuscript Book 1920s-1950s and undated

ArchivalResource

Inventory of the Llewelyn Powys Manuscript Book Lit MSS 00106., 1920s-1950s and undated

Inventory of the Llewelyn Powys Manuscript Book 1920s-1950s and undated

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/tamucush/00106/00106-P.html

Llewelyn Powys, (13 August 1884- 2 December 1939), wrote a wide variety of works, including essays, a biography, a novel, travel books, works of popular philosophy and propaganda, autobiographical memoirs, and Born in Dorset, England, Llewelyn Powys moved with his family to the village of Montacute in Somerset, England, where his father would be rector for the next thirty-three years. This area of England infuses Powys' work with its landscape. Some critics also feel Llewelyn Powys' work is informed by an urgency possibly caused by his lifelong battle with tuberculosis, with which he was diagnosed in 1909. Though Powys spent the next two years in a sanatorium in Davos, Switzerland, he was never to regain full heath. Nevertheless, this episode and the threat of impending death may have somehow energized Powys, for he seems to have devoted himself from then on to his writing. From 1914 to 1919 Llewelyn Powys lived in Kenya, managing a farm for his brother William, who was in military service during World War I. In 1919, Llewelyn moved to the United States, and did not return to England again until 1925. This pattern of leaving and returning to England informs the rest of Powys' life. Until the last few most productive years of his life, between 1931 and 1936, when he remained to write in his boyhood home of Dorset, England, Llewelyn Powys only achieved fame by forsaking his homeland and publishing outside of England. In October 1924, Llewelyn Powys married the managing editor of the magazine, Alyse Gregory, herself a well-known and well-connected New York novelist and essayist. In autumn 1936, Llewelyn Powys' health severely deteriorated and he left England in December for the sanatorium in Davos, Switzerland, in which he died in 1939. considered Llewelyn Powys' best work, was published posthumously, in 1939. The nearly 100 page manuscript book, bound in 3/4 cloth with marbled sides and a handwritten paper label listing the contents in ink pasted on the front, contains six handwritten essays, five in pencil and one in ink, by Llewelyn Powys, some published and some not published. The essays are as follows: consisting of eight pages, extensively revised; covering nine pages, extensively revised, apparently unpublished; , apparently unpublished; twenty pages, extensively revised, published in the November 6, 1926, and also reprinted in the first edition appearing in 1934, an enlarged edition in 1938; sixteen pages, extensively revised, apparently not published, or at least not under this title; and finally, in ten pages, written in ink, with revisions, which was printed in the and also reprinted in . Also in the box made for the manuscript book by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, is a letter handwritten in ink by Powys, dated December 15th 1935, signed by Llewelyn Powys. It is titled and was given to his wife Alyse Gregory. A note in her hand in ink appears on the verso of the two page letter below Llewelyn's signature and the date. An envelope with a typed description of the letter is included. , offered by G. F. Sims (Rare Books), Peacocks, Hurst, Berkshire, probably from the early 1950s follows, as does a typed index card listing the contents of the manuscript book, and a photocopy of the description of the collection from the rare book dealer, David. J. Holmes Autographs, of Collingswood, N.J. an imaginary autobiography. Dial Love and Death, Of the Sun, Of Romance, Of a Gannet Of Egoism, New Statesman, Earth Memories, Of Goodness, When the unicorn cons the water, Weekend Review Earth Memories Instructions as to the disposal of my body in the case of my death, A Catalogue of the Llewelyn Powys Manuscripts

eng,

Cushing Memorial Library,