Powys Webliography

Other archives

In addition to the Powys Society’s own Collection there are a number of other literary archives containing primary documents by the Powyses dispersed among both UK and USA institutions and university libraries. This list compiled by Chris Thomas incorporates details of collections in North America, first printed in The Powys Newsletter, 1970 and 1971, published by Colgate University, and now updated with website addresses. Visitors to the Powys Society’s website are invited to submit information about other collections not included here or make suggestions for improvements to this webliography (including broken links!).

Archives

A

University of Aberdeen

www.abdn.ac.uk

Ref MS 2265: 22 letters from T F Powys to J B Chapman

University of Arizona, Libraries, Special Collections, Tucson, Arizona, USA Evangeline Ensley Walton Papers

http://www.azarchivesonline.org/xtf/view?docId=ead/uoa/UAMS384.xml

Letters from JCP to Evangeline Walton, 1936-1958. Evangeline Walton (1907-1996) was an American fantasy writer who wrote four novels based on the tales in the Mabinogion, beginning with The Virgin and The Swine (1936) which was praised by JCP. The other three novels in Walton's tetralogy were not published until the 1970s. Walton also wrote on Greek mythology including a trilogy about Theseus of which only part 1 was published.

Art, Design and Architecture Museum, Schindler Archive, University of California (UC), Santa Barbara:

www.oac.cdlib.org

The Collection includes a copy of the playbill for the revival of JCP’s play The Idiot in Los Angeles in 1928. R M Schindler (1887-1953) was an architect and pupil of Adolf Loos and Otto Wagner. He moved to America in 1914, lived in Chicago, and worked for Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesen. In December 1920 he transferred to California to supervise the Hollyhock Project for Frank Lloyd Wright and later designed many modernist architectural projects in the Los Angeles area. He was employed by Reginald Pole to create the stage settings and act as “art advisor” for the production of The Idiot in 1928.

B

Bibliothèque nationale de France: (Richelieu library, 58 rue de Richelieu, 75002 Paris).

archivesetmanuscrits.bnf.fr.

i) Letter from JCP to Gabriel Marcel (1889-1973, French philosopher, dramatist, musician and Christian existentialist);
ii) postcard from JCP and Maria Canavaggia (French translator of JCP’s work) to Gabriel Marcel.

University of Bristol Library

www.bristol.ac.uk

3 letters from JCP to N L Bright, editorial correspondence file relating to the publication of Ebony and Ivory by Llewelyn Powys.

British Library, Dept of Manuscripts

www.bl.uk

Letter from JCP to Thomas H Bell, letters from JCP, TFP, and Llewelyn Powys to Vera Wainwright, diary of Llewelyn Powys, letters from Llewelyn Powys to Alyse Gregory and correspondence of Llewelyn Powys in the papers of Marie Stopes.

Brotherton Library, Brotherton Collection

www.leeds.ac.uk/library/spcoll/brocoll.htm

Autograph mss by JCP, The Poetry of Francis Berry [prose note], letters to Jessie Cormack (1956-1961), letter to Francis Berry praising his poem Murdock, letters from JCP to G Wilson Knight and Richard Knight, letter from Llewelyn Powys to Clement Shorter.

C

University of California, Berkeley, Bancroft Library: Noel Sullivan Papers (1911-1956)

bancroft.berkeley.edu/

Noel Sullivan, born 1890, was a prominent and very wealthy patron of music, theatre and the arts in Southern California. The collection consists of correspondence, manuscripts, diaries, clippings, theatrical and concert programmes and photographs concerning social and cultural life in the San Francisco and Carmel areas and includes correspondence from JCP to Sullivan.

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Charles E Young Research Library, Special Collections

www.library.ucla.edu/specialcollections/researchlibrary/charles-e-young-research-library-department-special-collections

Henry Miller papers: Finding Aid - cdn.calisphere.org/data/13030/z6/tf9t1nb6z6/files/tf9t1nb6z6.pdf
Correspondence from JCP to Henry Miller(1950-1959).
Paul Jordan Smith Papers: 18 letters from John Cowper Powys to Paul Jordan Smith (Box 18, Folders 7 and 8), and 6 associated items relating to Reginald Pole (Box 18, Folder 2).In the collection of Paul Jordan Smith’s manuscript material there are 6 holograph leaves relating to Llewelyn Powys ((Box 28,Folder 8).
See also On-line Archive of California (OAC), Finding Aid for Paul Jordan Smith Papers:
www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf9n39p2rj/  
Collection of Edward Weston Photographs, 1918-1946: the collection consists of  correspondence and 256 original photographs covering landscapes, still lifes, portraits, and nudes. There is one photographic plate of a portrait of JCP taken by Weston in 1918.
Correspondence between Llewelyn Powys and Louis Wilkinson.

Cambridge University Library

www.cam.ac.uk

Letters from Louis Wilkinson to TFP, letter from TFP to Charles Prentice, 2 letters from Gilbert Phelps to TFP, letter from Ruth Sanders-Manning to TFP, letters from TFP to Alan W Steele, letters from Llewelyn Powys to James Venn, and Naomi Mitchison, letters from Llewelyn Powys edited by Alyse Gregory, Notebook of Llewelyn Powys containing quotations and notes on local events.

University of Chicago

www.uchicago.edu

Letters from JCP and Llewelyn Powys to Harriet Monroe, editor of Poetry Magazine.

Churchill Archives Centre (University of Cambridge)

janus.lib.cam.ac.uk

Papers comprising a copy typescript of Porius, a typescript of a dramatisation of Dostoevsky's The Idiot, and a press cuttings album.

Colgate University Library, Special Collections, Powys Family Collection

cul.colgate.edu/powys_collection

Collection includes the complete holograph manuscript of JCP’s Autobiography, the holograph mss of Dostoevsky, and of JCP’s late works Real Wraiths, You and Me and Two and Two, the only remaining complete typescript of Porius, the typescripts of A Glastonbury Romance, and Parts 1-IV of Morwyn as well as some other shorter works in mss; major correspondence with Louis Wilkinson, and H L Mencken, letters to Nellie Van Volkenberg, and unpublished correspondence with John Redwood Anderson, Marian Powys and E.H. Visiak. The collection also has original manuscripts of works by Theodore, including the holograph mss of Fables, and Llewelyn Powys including the typescript of Swiss Essays and the holograph mss of African Wisdom.

View full check-list of this Collection, printed in 1972

Columbia University, New York, Rare Book and Manuscript Library

a) John Cowper Powys Papers:   www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/archival/collections/ldpd_4079234/: JCP letters to Cyril Clemens of the International Mark Twain Society. Also, three manuscripts, one a ‘Foreword’ written by Powys for a proposed biography of A.E. Housman by Cyril Clemens; and a Powys family genealogy. (MS.1020)

b) Vanguard Press Records: www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/archival/collections/ldpd_4079730/: editorial and production archives of Vanguard Press: correspondence, manuscripts, contracts, memoranda, galley proofs, photographs, clippings, and printed materials. The collection includes correspondence of John Cowper Powys. (Ms 1289).

c) James O. Brown Associates Records: www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/archival/collections/ldpd_4079748/:
(New York City literary agency). Files include correspondence with authors, publishers, and other agents and deal with editing and publishing, serial rights, reprints, dramatic rights, translations and foreign rights, promotion, copyright registration, contracts, royalty statements, tax statements, and other financial materials, and the personal affairs of many clients. The collection includes correspondence of John Cowper Powys and Llewelyn Powys. (MS.0153)

d) Max Lincoln Schuster Papers: findingaids.cul.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_4079317/summary. The collection includes 11 folders containing letters from John Cowper Powys to Max Schuster and manuscript of JCP’s book Dostoevsky.

v) Watkins Loomis Records (literary agency): findingaids.cul.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_4079449/summary. The collection contains correspondence, manuscripts, memoranda, contracts, and other legal documents, account books, royalty statements and other financial records, photographs, printed materials, and card files. The papers deal with editorial, financial, and legal aspects of publishing, magazine, theatrical and film rights, and all other personal and professional activities of their American and English clients. The collection includes correspondence of John Cowper Powys.

University of Connecticut Thomas J Dodd Research Centre

www.uconn.edu.

Powys family Collection, created by Rex Dennis Parady, includes news clippings, portraits, sketches and photographs, a portfolio of wood engravings by Gertrude, letters from JCP to Rex Parady, mss include The Brazen Head, The Complex Vision, an undated fragment of a novel, poems, preface to Laurence Sterne, some pages from Up and Out, a six page essay on T F Powys, correspondence from Llewelyn Powys and correspondence from T F Powys 1928-1930 and 1936.

Cornell University Library, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, the George Jean Nathan Collection 

www.cornell.edu

Letters from Llewelyn Powys to George Jean Nathan.

D

Dartington Hall Trust and Archive

www.dartington.org/archive/

Includes correspondence between John Cowper Powys and Maurice Browne 1952-1953

Dartmouth College, Rauner Special Collections Library, New Hampshire

www.dartmouth.edu/~library/rauner/

The George F. Sims Collection (rare book dealer) which  includes correspondence between Phyllis Playter and George F Sims in the 1950s, as well as a folder of correspondence from John Cowper Powys. George Sims purchased a great number of original holograph manuscripts from Powys and advertised these for sale around the time Powys was planning to move from Corwen to Blaenau Ffestiniog in 1955.The library will provide a complimentary copy of the contents of the Sims collection on direct application.

University of Durham Library

www.dur.ac.uk

23 letters from JCP, 25 letters from TFP and 8 letters and 2 postcards from Llewelyn Powys to Claude Colleer Abbott.

G

Georgetown University Library, Special Collections Research Centre, Marguerite Tjader Harris Papers

www.library.georgetown.edu/dept/speccoll/tjader.htm

Marguerite Harris was a wealthy American heiress, writer, founder and editor of Directions magazine 1937-1945) The Collection includes 3 ALS & 2 TLS from JCP to Marguerite Harris.

The Getty Research Institute, Special Collections, Los Angeles, California: Beaumont and Nancy Newhall Papers, 1843-1993

https://primo.getty.edu

Edward Weston Correspondence: letter from Edward Weston to fellow Californian photographer, Johan Hagemeyer, dated 12 May 1918, refers to Weston’s visit to a lecture given by John Cowper Powys in the Trinity Auditorium in Los Angeles, on 7 May 1918 on the subject of “France and War”. The lecture was reviewed in the Los Angeles Times on 8 May 1918 under the heading: “Says Teuton Rule is death to Humanity — famous English essayist reveals menace of German culture” . There is a copy of Edward Weston’s letter to Johan Hagemeyer at the Centre for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona. See also finding aid to the Beaumont and Nancy Newhall papers and link to the Getty Research Institute at the Online Archives of California at: www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt8r29q4jj/ Beaumont Newhall (1908-1993) and Nancy Newhall (1908-1974) were key figures in the development of photography in America.  

H

Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin

This is a very fine, sizeable and comprehensive collection of original manuscripts, representing the works of John Cowper Powys, T.F. Powys, Llewelyn Powys and other members of the Powys family. There are some sixteen hundred letters written inside the Powys family, additional correspondence to other writers and friends, such as letters from from JCP to Edgar Lee Masters, and letters from Llewelyn, TFP, ARP and JCP to Gerald Brenan, as well as the manuscripts and letters of Philippa Powys. The collection also includes photographic albums showing five generations of the Powys family, press cuttings, business papers, revised proofs and galleys and some personal memorabilia and artefacts. Notable examples include the holograph manuscripts of John Cowper Powys’s novels A Glastonbury Romance and Porius. The Llewelyn Powys holdings are described in the Powys Society Newsletter, No.45, April 2002.

Finding Aids for each of the Powys collections at the Harry Ransom Center can be found at:

All Ransom Center online finding aids may be searched at: www.hrc.utexas.edu/research/search. By searching here, you will simultaneously find materials representing the Powyses in their own collections, as well as any Powys materials held in the collections of other persons or organizations

With thanks to Joan M. Sibley, Senior Archivist Archives & Visual Materials Cataloging Harry Ransom Center The University of Texas at Austin P. O. Box 7219 Austin, TX   78713-7219 P: 512-471-7110 F: 512-471-7930.

Harvard University, Houghton Library, Harvard College Library: Witter Bynner Papers

http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~hou00668

Witter Bynner (1881-1968) was a poet, playwright, university professor and friend of many of the people associated with JCP especially A D Ficke and Edgar Lee Masters. The collection includes the mss of a work, by JCP, entitled Tiresias. TS.s; [n.p., n.d.]. 2s. (2p.),11 letters to Witter Bynner (covering the period 1935-1961) and copies of 4 letters from Witter Bynner to JCP (covering the period 1937-1957).
Also see Guide to Witter Bynner Additional Papers at: http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~hou00598: Includes 1 letter, dated 1925, from Llewelyn Powys to Witter Bynner.

Haverford College, USA

www.haverford.edu

Letters from JCP in the Fred Rodell Papers.

Hofstra University Library, Hempstead, Long Island, NY, Special Collections Department, Rare Books and Manuscripts

www.hofstra.edu

Large collection of letters from JCP, manuscripts of Llewelyn and T.F. Powys.

Huntington Library, Department of Manuscripts, San Marino: California,
Charles Erskine Scott Wood Papers

http://catalog.huntington.org/record=b1554681~S0

Charles Erskine Scott Wood (1852-1944) was an author, soldier, poet, lawyer, radical activist and advocate of civil liberties. He was a close friend of JCP. The collection, which mostly covers the period 1912 to1940, is comprised of correspondence, diaries, business papers and other manuscripts by and about Wood and his wife, Sara Bard Field (1882-1974, women’s activist, propagandist, writer and poet). The collection includes 71 letters from JCP to Wood as well as correspondence from Llewelyn (14 letters) and Alyse Gregory (13 letters). A finding aid to the Collection can be obtained on application to the library.

I

Indiana State University, Cunningham Memorial Library

http://library.indstate.edu/about/units/rbsc/debs/debs-idx.html

DEBS Collection: material relating to the life and work of Eugene V Debs (1855-1926), socialist, union leader and labour movement activist.
See especially abstracts, “P”, of letters to Debs at: http://lib.indstate.edu/about/units/rbsc/debs/ab_p.html - includes information about letters from Ruth le Prade to Debs regarding preparation of her book Debs and the Poets and contribution of a poem by JCP.  

Indiana University (Bloomington)

www.indiana.edu

The Dreiser collection includes a bust of JCP,  the Desmond and Mary McCarthey collection includes some material by Llewelyn Powys and the Lilly Library Manuscript Collection includes correspondence from JCP to David Anton Randall (1905-1975), bookman and first Lilly librarian at the university.

Institut mémoire de l’edition contemporaine (IMEC), Abbaye d'Ardenne, 14280 Saint Germain, La Blanche Herbe, Caen

www.imec-archives.com/n/d_jpod58dd3u63.php.

Jean Wahl Collection (fonds Jean Wahl): includes 60 letters from John Cowper Powys to the French philosopher and writer Jean Wahl (1888-1974), covering dates 1937-1939, 1952-1959 and 1961. Some of the letters are undated. www.imec-archives.com/fonds_archives_fiche.php?i=WHT. Kenneth White Collection includes his doctoral dissertation which has a section on JCP. (Kenneth White,b.1936, writer, translator, poet, essayist, author of The Life Technique of John Cowper Powys [1978], and founder of the Institute of Geopoetics).

University of Iowa Libraries, Special Collections

Angus Wilson Collection: www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/Bai/graves.htm
The collection includes mss “John Cowper Powys – Notes for a broadcast.”  
Ruth Suckow Papers: www.lib.uiowa.edu/speccoll/MSC/ToMsC750/MsC706/suckowaugust2005.htm:
Ruth Suckow (1892-1960) was an Iowan author, short story writer, novelist, artist, and Quaker who was admired by JCP for her depiction of life and people in the Midwest. The collection includes correspondence with JCP. The collection also includes works of her husband Ferner Nuhn (1908-1989), including correspondence, essays and articles. Ferner Nuhn shared his wife’s Quaker beliefs and association with JCP (he reviewed A Glastonbury Romance in The Nation and published a letter to the editor of the New York Herald Tribune books section, which is quoted in Langridge’s JCP, A Record of Achievement).
See also Papers of Ruth Suckow, Photographs and Slides, at:
www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/msc/ToMsC750/MsC706/photos.htm.
The collection includes a photograph of Ruth Suckow, JCP and Phyllis Playter.

K

University of Kansas (Lawrence),Kenneth Spencer Research Library

www.ku.edu

Letters to Grant Richards from Llewelyn Powys.

Kent State University (Kent, Ohio)

www.kent.edu

ALS from JCP to Wilbur Needham enclosing copy of his poem The Peewit, autograph note signed to Ben Abramson on a prospectus for An Anthology.

L

Liverpool Record Office

www.liverpool.gov.uk

Correspondence from John Cowper Powys with James Hanley, Also letters from Llewelyn and TFP.

University of London Library

www.ull.ac.uk

Portions of T F Powys’s mss of the House With The Echo, 14 letters from TFP to Charles Lahr, Dialogue on Genesis by T F Powys.

M

McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Archives and Research collections

http://library.mcmaster.ca/archives/findaids/fonds/p/powys.htm

In January 2005 Peter J. Bassnett of Toronto donated his Powys collection of some 750 items to McMaster University Library. The collection consists of first and later editions, journals, manuscripts, autographed letters, ephemera and secondary literature related to the Powys brothers and their circle. There are letters written between 1929 and1965 and two signed typescripts by Llewelyn Powys of "Memoirs of Thomas Hardy". Ephemeral items include a ticket for a lecture on 22 January 1916 delivered by John Cowper Powys on "Modern European Literature: D'Annunzio" and a postcard from the Woman's City Club [Kansas City, Missouri?], notifying members of literary events during April 1933.

Marquette University

www.marquette.edu

The Elizabeth Whitcomb Houghton Collection includes a letter from T F Powys to Mr Schwartz, 1931 (a New York bookdealer).

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Special Collections Library

www.lib.umich.edu/spec-coll/

The Ellen Van Volkenburg and Maurice Browne papers (1910-1960) include correspondence with John Cowper Powys and his association with them during the period of the Little Theatre in Chicago as well as later correspondence, photos and original play bills advertising JCP’s lectures at the Little Theatre. The collection also includes photographs of JCP, A D Ficke and his wife Gladys taken during JCP’s visit to New Mexico in the summer of 1927.

National Library of Australia

http://nla.gov.au/nla.ms-ms4829

Letters from John Cowper Powys to Douglas Stewart (1913-1985). Douglas Stewart was an Australian/New Zealand writer, poet, playwright, critic, literary editor and  biographer. Stewart was also an acquaintance of Sylvia Townsend Warner and Valentine Ackland who he visited in East Chaldon in 1937 on his way to meet John Cowper Powys.

The National Library of Wales

www.llgc.org.uk

Collection includes: original copies of the diaries of John Cowper Powys — see John Cowper Powys's diary for 1939 on the library’s Digital Mirror) — the uncorrected carbon copy of the typescript of Porius, letters from JCP to Phyllis Playter, and many of the letters, manuscripts and personal documents made available to Morine Krissdóttir in the creation of her biography of JCP – Descents of Memory. NLW also possesses a sculpture bust of JCP by Oloff de Wet, a portrait painting of JCP by Gertrude Powys, holograph mss pages of the concluding part of A Glastonbury Romance, original correspondence from Henry Miller to JCP (1950-1963), the typescript of JCP’s play Paddock Calls written in 1922, and correspondence from JCP and Phyllis Playter to the literary agent Laurence Pollinger. Letters from and relating to Michel Gresset, Marie Canavaggia and Gilbert Turner.

New York Public Library

www.nypl.org 

a) Manuscripts and Archives Division: Elizabeth Wade White papers:
i) Letters from Katie Powys, written from Chydyok between 1938 to 1954, and sent to Elizabeth Wade White (1906-1954) in America.  The correspondents shared friendship with Sylvia Townsend Warner, Valentine Ackland and the sculptress Elizabeth Muntz who lived nearby in the village of East Chaldon. Letters from Katie have been transcribed by Peter Judd and were published in Powys Journal, Vol. V11. 1997.
ii) Letters from Gertrude Powys (1949) and Theodore Francis Powys (1939. 1939, 1942 and 1949) to Elizabeth Wade Wight
iii) Related correspondence in the collection from Sylvia Townsend Warner, Valentine Ackland and others to Elizabeth Wade Wight contain references and notes on the Powyses
b) Letters from John Cowper Powys to Isadora Duncan written at the time she was performing at the Century Theatre in New York.

The Newberry Library, Chicago

www.newberry.org/

a) Inventory of the Eunice Tietjens Papers: http://mms.newberry.org/html/Tietjens.html (Eunice Tietjens (1884-1944) was an American poet, novelist, journalist, children’s author and editor). The Collection includes correspondence with John Cowper Powys;

b) Inventory of the Will Ransom Papershttp://mms.newberry.org/html/Ransom.html (Will Ransom ( 1878-1955) was an American printer, commercial artist, typographer and author of works on private presses). The Collection includes correspondence with Llewelyn Powys;

c) Inventory of the Fanny Butcher Papers: http://mms.newberry.org/html/butcher.html#series1. (Fanny Butcher ( 1888-1987) was a Chicago literary critic and author). The Collection includes documents relating to John Cowper Powys.

North America Brooklyn Public Library

www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org

Letters from JCP and Llewelyn Powys to Benjamin De Casseres (1873-1945), a journalist and author who worked for various New York City newspapers writing columns and editorials.

University of Oregon

www.uoregon.edu

Letters of Marian Powys, seven manuscripts, and a galley proof by JCP including a scrapbook  of 16th to 20th century examples of lace making, identified and described by Marian, JCP letters to Valentine Kelly 1956-1958.

P

University of Pennsylvania — Kislak Center

http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/pacscl/search.html?

Theodore Dreiser papers

http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017/d/pacscl/UPENN_RBML_MsColl30
Correspondence from JCP and Llewelyn Powys to Theodore Dreiser, a copy of JCP’s playscript The Idiot, “Nietzsche” [notebook], bound page proofs of Wolf Solent, The Edgar Lee Masters correspondence includes letters and poems 1916-1946 sent to Powys by Masters. The collection contains 163 letters and 110 poems, mostly typescript originals.

James Lambdin Henderson papers

http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017/d/pacscl/UPENN_RBML_PUSpMsColl623
Letters from JCP, Phyllis Playter, Marian Powys

Lewis Mumford Papers

http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017/d/pacscl/UPENN_RBML_MsColl2
Llewelyn Powys letters (8 items), 1922-1933

Waldo Frank Papers

http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017/d/pacscl/UPENN_RBML_PUSpMsColl823
Llewelyn Powys, 1 letter.

Miscellaneous Papers

http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017/d/pacscl/UPENN_RBML_PUSpMiscMss
JCP typescript and handwritten essay entitled "Dreiser", undated. 2 items (15 leaves).

PennState University Library

https://psu.summon.serialssolutions.com/advanced#!/search?ho=t&fvf=ContentType,Archival%20Material,f&l=en&q=Powys
4 letters from TFP to Angus [Davidson], dated 1923-1931, discussing his writing, with news of his health and his family. Angus Davidson (1898-1980) was a writer and translator, associate of the Bloomsbury Group and an assistant at the Hogarth Press, between 1924 and 1929, with Leonard and Virginia Woolf.
1 letter from T F Powys to Frederick Bason, dated 3rd July 1929, in response to a request for TFP’s autograph.
1 letter from JCP to Curtis [?], dated 14/10/1938, discussing the condition of the world, with references to Lady Astor, Palestine and Nazi Germany
1 letter from JCP to Wallace Brockway and Bart Weiner at Doubleday publishers, dated 4/11/1948 supporting the idea of an encyclopaedia of quotations from living authors

Princeton University Library, Dept of Rare Books and Special Collections, Gertrude Claytor Collection

http://findingaids.princeton.edu/collections/C0150.

The collection consists of selected material by and about Edgar Lee Masters covering the period 1915 to 1961. Gertrude Harris Boatwright Claytor, (1888-1973), was a poet and friend of Edgar Lee Masters. The collection includes ALS, dated 26 July 1961, from JCP to Gertrude Claytor.  

R

Rancho Los Cerritos Historic Site, Long Beach, California, Sarah Bixby Collection

www.rancholoscerritos.org/collections.html

(Rancho Los Cerritos is a public museum dedicated to the conservation of artifacts and  documents relating to the history of Spanish, Mexican and American California). Sarah Bixby Smith, 1871-1935, writer and women’s activist; wife of Paul Jordan Smith, 1885-1971, journalist, author and editor. The Collection includes letters from JCP to Sarah Bixby Smith, during the period 1918 to 1934, as well as two original photographic portraits of JCP by Edward Weston.

University of Reading

www.rdg.ac.uk

Files of correspondence relating to works by T F Powys, 2 pages of corrected text for ‘Fables’, letter from Llewelyn Powys in the files of Macmillan and Co Ltd, 55 letters and a telegram from Llewelyn Powys in the early correspondence files of The Bodley Head Ltd., 2 letters from Llewelyn Powys to Frank Ernest Hill, letter from JCP in the archives of the Hogarth Press, 5 letters from JCP in the early correspondence files of the Bodley Head (1953), letters from TFP in the Chatto and Windus file.

University of Rochester, River Campus Libraries, Dept of Rare Books, Special Collections and Preservation

www.lib.rochester.edu/index.cfm?page=169

i) Dorothy Dudley Harvey Papers: www.lib.rochester.edu/index.cfm?PAGE=916 (Dorothy Dudley Harvey, 1884-1962,was a writer and poet who published work in Poetry: A Magazine of Verse and The Dial and wrote a biography of Dreiser). The Collection includes letters from JCP to DDH written in 1932.
ii) Claude Bragdon Annotated Correspondence: www.lib.rochester.edu/index.cfm?PAGE=3519#_ftn1 (Bragdon, 1866-1946, was an architect,stage designer and publisher who helped to translate Ouspensky’s Tertium Organum. He also published Confessions of Two Brothers by JCP and Llewelyn Powys). The Collection includes letters from Llewelyn Powys to Bragdon dated 9 November and 26 December 1922 and 16 October 1925.
iii) Anne Holahan Papers: www.lib.rochester.edu/index.cfm?PAGE=925 (Anne Holahan, was an American radio actress and friend of Llewelyn Powys, Clifford Odets, E. E. Cummings and Marianne Moore). The Collection includes 9 letters from Llewelyn Powys to Anne Holahan.
iv) Carl Ethan Akeley Papers: www.lib.rochester.edu/index.cfm?PAGE=774 (Carl Ethan Akeley, 1864-1926, was a sculptor, conservationist and nature photographer). The Collection includes letters from Llewelyn Powys to Carl Akeley.

Smithsonian Institution – Archives of American Art

www.aaa.si.edu/

(a national resource dedicated to the preservation of primary records relating to the history of the visual arts in America). Links to:
a) Jerome Blum papers, 1915-c1969: www.aaa.si.edu/collections/jerome-blum-papers-9565/more (Jerome Blum (1884-1956) was an American artist based in Chicago and friend of Theodore Dreiser. Llewelyn was acquainted with Blum and stayed with him at his home in Mt Kisco. This visit is described in The Verdict of Bridlegoose ). The Collection includes letters from Lleweyn to Blum, dating from 1922, as well as a request from Alyse Gregory to borrow letters for publication.
b) Reginald Marsh papers: www.aaa.si.edu/collections/reginald-marsh-papers-9072/more. (Marsh (1898-1954) was a painter and illustrator who lived in New York in the 1920s and 1930s. He created work for books by Dreiser and Dos Passos and in his paintings depicted scenes of everyday life in contemporary New York. In 1930 he made a portrait sketch of Llewelyn which is reproduced, with information by Philip Larkin, in the Powys Review No 9, 1981/1982). The collection includes photographs of Marsh with the artist, Augustus Kelly, and Llewelyn and correspondence with Llewelyn covering the years 1927 to 1939.
c) Esther McCoy papers: www.aaa.si.edu/collections/esther-mccoy-papers-5502/more (Esther McCoy (1904-1989) was an architectural critic and historian, photographer, novelist, and short story writer as well as an assistant to Theodore Dreiser. She was closely associated with avant garde writers and artists in New York and California). The Collection includes digitised copies of letters from JCP to Esther McCoy, 1934 (addressed from Down Barn, East Chaldon) and 1948 (addressed from Cae Coed, Corwen), www.aaa.si.edu/collections/container/viewer/Powys-John-Cowper-241785
An oral history interview about her life, contacts and work, conducted at her home on 7 June and 14 November 1987 in which she briefly recalls her meetings with JCP in Patchin Place:
Transcriptions of the tapes incorporating the references to JCP are available at :
www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-esther-mccoy-12069

Stanford University Archives

www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/spc/uarch/index.html

Poster Collection, 1890s-2011: the collection documents a wide variety of academic and student life at Stanford University, with information about invited speakers and lectures including an advertisement for JCP’s visit to the university in 1922.

Syracuse University, George Arents Research Library

http://scrc.syr.edu

The comprehensive collection includes memorabilia associated with the Powyses, press cuttings, photographs, some early JCP notebooks, correspondence, and fragments of holograph manuscripts of the Autobiography, Owen Glendower, and Weymouth Sands as well as the holograph manuscript of the parts of Wolf Solent, Chapters 19-24, which were deleted by JCP from the published text.

T

Texas, A & M University, Cushing Library

http://cushing.library.tamu.edu/

The collection has materials relating to T F Powys, and Llewelyn Powys including : Letters of Theodore Francis Powys to his sister, Lucy Penny, and the writer Valentine Ackland,  and a manuscript book belonging to Llewelyn Powys which contains six handwritten essays, some published and some unpublished: "Of the Sun," consisting of eight pages, "Of Romance," nine pages, apparently unpublished; "Of a Gannet", apparently unpublished; "Of Egoism," twenty pages, "Of Goodness," sixteen pages, apparently not published, and "When the unicorn cons the water," ten pages. Also included is a letter handwritten in ink, dated December 15th 1935, and signed by Llewelyn Powys. It is titled "Instructions as to the disposal of my body in the case of my death," and was given to his wife Alyse Gregory. This collection was also greatly increased in 2011 with new acquisitions of manuscripts and correspondence relating to JCP.

University of Toronto, Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, Handscombe Powys Collection:

www.library.utoronto.ca/fisher/

Correspondence from JCP, TFP and Llewelyn Powys, association and presentation copies of books, pamphlets and articles. “For those interested in the texts and editions of the Powys brothers (as distinct from manuscripts) this must be one of the best equipped collections in North America” ( W J Keith, Powys Society Newsletter 57, March 2006).

Trinity College (Cambridge University) Library

www.trin.cam.ac.uk

Letter from T F Powys to R C Trevelyan.

Trinity College, Dublin

www.tcd.ie

4 letters from Llewelyn Powys to Seumas O’Sullivan, the editor of the Dublin Magazine.

University of Tulsa, Special collections, McFarlin Library

www.lib.utulsa.edu

Letter from JCP to Dorothy Richardson.

V

Vanderbilt Museum of Suffolk County, Centrepoint, New York: Alva Belmont Papers. (From Archives Directory for History of Collecting in America

http://research.frick.org/directoryweb/browserecord2.php?-action=browse&-recid=7440. )

Alva Belmont (1853-1933), [Alva Vanderbilt from 1876-1896] was a wealthy socialite, philanthropist and supporter of the women’s suffrage movement. The collection includes correspondence from JCP.

University of Victoria, British Columbia, English Literature Collections

www.library.uvic.ca

Letters from JCP to Alfred Perles and to Henry Miller (about Perles), letter from Llewelyn Powys to Mr Bran and typescript of an essay “Christian Churlishness.”

University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Clifton Waller Barrett Library, Special Collections: A Guide to the Papers of The Fortean Society (1927-1952)

https://search.lib.virginia.edu/catalog/u1748777

The Collection includes a letter from JCP to Arthur Leonard Ross (a lawyer and the literary executor of Frank Harris). JCP’s letter (ALS, p.4), is dated 12 July 1937, deals with news of the proposed closing of the Fortean Society and complains that Tiffany Thayer (1902-1959, actor author and founder of the Fortean Society in 1931) is withholding Fort's original notes. Theodore Dreiser, who served as the Society’s first President, was also refused access to Fort’s notes. JCP was a founding member of the Board of the Fortean Society with Dreiser and Booth Tarkington (see the article about the early days of the Fortean Society in Fortean Times, June 2005).

University of Wisconsin – archival resources: The Little Review Records

http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-mil-uwmmss0001

Collection includes: (a) material relating to the period 1914-1929 — author’s corrected and uncorrected galleys of works, correspondence, holograph manuscripts, and typescripts; documents relating to John Cowper Powys’ contributions to Little Review.

Y

Yale University Library, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

These important collections include correspondence between John Cowper Powys, Arthur Davison Ficke and Dorothy Richardson and associated documents in the collection of the Alyse Gregory Papers as well as significant material in the John Cowper Powys Collection including JCP’s letters to:
a) the American novelist James Purdy;
b) the business tycoon Curtis Freshel discussing Powys’s writings, his views on European politics of the 1930s, his religious beliefs and reading;
c) letters to Bill Bax discussing personal news, friends and family members, World War II, fascism, Powys’s writings and favourite authors such as Homer, Sophocles, and Henry James; and
d) letters to the British painter, fiction writer and sculptor Sven Berlin containing reminiscences of the Powys brothers lives in New York City. The collection also includes AMSs by T F Powys of The Key of the Field and The Dewpond. The Arthur Davison Ficke Papers include photographs of JCP and Ficke as well as letters from Llewelyn (there are also annotated transcripts, by Ficke, of letters from Llewelyn).