Lleweyln Powys Letters

Identity elements

Reference code

US TxAM-C 173

Level of description

Collection

Title

Lleweyln Powys Letters

Date(s)

  • 1936-1948 (Creation)

Extent

2 Boxes

Name of creator

(1884-1939)

Biographical history

Llewelyn Powys (August 13, 1884 - December 2, 1939), wrote a wide variety of works, including essays, a biography, a novel, travel books, works of popular philosophy and propaganda, autobiographical memoirs, and "an imaginary autobiography".

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. Powys was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1909. Though he spent the next two years in a sanatorium in Davos, Switzerland, he was never to regain full heath.

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, marrying Alyse Gregory in October 1924 who was the managing editor of the Dial magazine as well as a widely known and connected New York novelist and essayist. Powys returned to England again in 1925, the 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 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.

Content and structure elements

Scope and content

This collection contains letters that are instigated by the inquiries of Mr. Charles Perry Gould, and his desire to have Llewelyn Powys write an introduction for the upcoming reprint of The Simple Cobbler of Agawam. It contains the initial contact, the deal under which Powys writes the introduction, and also what happens to his writings after Powys' death. Sometimes in his letters to Mr. Gould, Llewelyn encloses postcards of Davos, Switzerland, as well as a picture of the author himself.

System of arrangement

The letters arranged chronologically.

Conditions of access and use elements

Conditions governing access

Physical access

Technical access

Conditions governing reproduction

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Languages of the material

  • English

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Notes element

General note

Lit/MSS 00106

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Sources used

Archivist's note

© Copyright 2019 Cushing Library. All rights reserved.

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