About the Collection
The Powys Society Collection and Archive was established in 1992 to provide a focus for
scholarship into the Powys Family, particularly John Cowper Powys (1872-1963),
Theodore Francis Powys (1875-1953), Llewelyn Powys (1884-1939), and their
immediate circle of friends.
The core of the Collection consists of major bequests by Mr E. E. Bissell and Mr Francis Feather, who have bequeathed their very important collections of Powys books and
manuscripts to the Society in perpetuity. Other gifts and bequests continue to
extend and enrich the material available.
The manuscripts, typescripts, letters and copies of published works by or about the Powys
family, as well as ex libris volumes, are held in Exeter University Library.
The Collection also includes an important corpus of Powys family letters, as
well as correspondence with their wide circle of friends, including the writers
Sylvia Townsend Warner, Huw Menai, Louis Wilkinson, Henry Miller and Elizabeth
Myers.
Dorset Museum
Paintings, photographs, wood engravings and memorabilia relating to the Powys Family as
well as items donated directly to the Dorset Museum are kept in the
Museum at Dorchester. Access to these is according to the Museum’s regulations
on archive access. The Museum also exhibits some Powys material in its Writers’
Gallery. There are several works by the painter Gertrude Powys also kept
securely at the DM.
Exeter University Old Library Special Collections
The bulk of the Powys Society Collection has been held by Exeter University, Special Collections, Old Library since 2014. Its contents are now (2021) fully catalogued in Exeter’s own system. To access the online catalogue please follow the link below:
If you wish to visit the Collection at the University of Exeter (or make enquiries as to availability) please contact Dr Christine Faunch to arrange a convenient time and date. The following pages on the Exeter website will be useful:
‘We very much encourage members to come and use the collections – we are a friendly and welcoming team and are always happy to help and advise on collections where we can’. — Dr Christine Faunch, Head of Heritage Collections
University of Exeter
Research Commons,
Old Library
Prince of Wales Road
EXETER EX4 4SB
Inventory of The Powys Society Collection
The inventory of the collection has now been entirely assimilated into the online catalogue and we recommend any would-be researcher to use the searching aids linked above. However, the old inventory compiled by Morine Krissdottir has been retained and is available here in case it is helpful as an initial finding aid.
