Amabel Williams-Ellis correspondence

A collection of fifty-seven letters, 1920-1960, including fifty-four, 1920-1923, received by Amabel Williams-Ellis from poets and other literary figures, mainly in her capacity as poetry editor (1921) and literary editor (1922-3) of The Spectator.
The correspondents include Robert Baden-Powell, 8 November 1921 (f. 25), Edmund Blunden, 9 July 1921 (f. 12), John Buchan, 8 November 1921 (f. 24), [Lord] Dunsany, 29 October 1921 (f. 20), Edith Evans, 29 October 1921 (f. 21), Hugh I'A[nson] Fausset, 8 December [1923] (f. 53), Ford Madox Ford, Cap Ferrat, 25 January 1923 (ff. 41-42; concerning Ezra Pound), Alfred Perceval Graves, Harlech, April-September 1921 (ff. 7-8, 17), Robert Graves, Boar's Hill, Oxford, 7 March [1921] (f. 5), Richard Hughes, S.S. Saxonia, 4 July [1921], and Penrhyndeudraeth, [1922] (ff. 13, 30), Aldous Huxley, 3 April 1923 (f. 47; concerning [Boris] Anrep), Rudyard Kipling, 2 February 1921 (f. 2), Stephen Leacock, 7 November 1921 (f. 23), Edwin L. Lutyens, 16 February 1923 (f. 45), Rose Macaulay, 20 February 1923 (f. 46), Walter de la Mare, June-December 1921 (ff. 11, 28-29), Harriet Monroe, 30 May 1923 (f. 52), Harold Nicolson, 11 December 1923 (f. 54), Edith Sitwell, [April 1922]-[?1923] (ff. 33, 39, 56), Osbert Sitwell, February-August 1921 (ff. 3, 10, 14), Sybil Thorndike, 10 February 1923 (f. 43), Alec Waugh, 11 September 1922 (f. 38), and H. G. Wells, 24 May 1923 (f. 49). Some letters are apparently addressed to Amabel's predecessors or to the Poetry Editor generally (ff. 1, 3-4, 6-7, 9-12, 18, 21, 38); a few are possibly intended for her husband, Clough Williams-Ellis. Some, mostly later, letters concern invitations to social gatherings (ff. 2, 19, 26, 29, 40, 43-46, 48-56). Also included are letters to a Miss Tarry from A. Maude Royden, 26 January 1924, (f. 57), and to Mrs Hulse [?secretary to Williams-Ellis] from Storm Jameson, 29 May 1933, and V[ita] Sackville-West, 1 September 1960 (ff. 58-59).

Arranged chronologically at NLW.

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Christie's; London; Purchased at auction, lot 39; 1 December 2015; 99632235902419.

Title based on contents.

April 2016.

Description compiled by Rhys M. Jones.

Usual copyright laws apply.

The letters seem to have been retained principally as a collection of autographs.

A few papers relating to Amabel Williams-Ellis may be found in NLW, Sir Clough Williams-Ellis Papers.

Published