Phyllis Playter letters to George Lewin

Letters and cards to George Lewin, bookseller friend of J. Cowper Powys, from Phyllis Playter (28, of which nine are incomplete), [c. 1942]-[c. 1971], Louis Wilkinson (2), 1963, Isobel Powys Marks (1), 1964, and Enid Lewis (8), 1966-1974, together with a few other letters, 1930-1949, with Powys associations including two letters, 1949, to Theodore F. Powys from Valentine Ackland.

Phyllis Playter was born in 1894 in Kansas City, Missouri, to Canadian-American parents. She first met John Cowper Powys in March 1921 during a lecture tour of the United States and subsequently became Powys's long-term companion from 1923 until his death forty years later. Herself a gifted writer and poet, Playter's own career was largely subsumed in that of Powys's, upon whose work she nevertheless exerted significant influence. In his letters and diaries Powys commonly refers to Playter as 'the T.T.' (the 'Tiny Thin' or 'The Tao'). Following Powys's death in 1963, Playter continued to live in their last home at 1 Waterloo, Blaenau Ffestiniog, until her own death in 1982.

Readers consulting modern papers in the National Library of Wales are required to abide by the conditions set out in information provided when applying for their Readers' Tickets, whereby the reader shall become responsible for compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998 in relation to any processing by them of personal data obtained from modern records held at the Library.

Joan Stevens; Yoxford, Suffolk; Purchase; 1991 and 1992.

Phyllis Playter was born in 1894 in Kansas City, Missouri, to Canadian-American parents. She first met John Cowper Powys in March 1921 during a lecture tour of the United States and subsequently became Powys's long-term companion from 1923 until his death forty years later. Herself a gifted writer and poet, Playter's own career was largely subsumed in that of Powys's, upon whose work she nevertheless exerted significant influence. In his letters and diaries Powys commonly refers to Playter as 'the T.T.' (the 'Tiny Thin' or 'The Tao'). Following Powys's death in 1963, Playter continued to live in their last home at 1 Waterloo, Blaenau Ffestiniog, until her own death in 1982.

Preferred citation: NLW MS 22853C.

Title based on contents.

The contents are indexed in greater detail in Handlist of Manuscripts in the National Library of Wales, vol. 9 (Aberystwyth, 2003).

Usual copyright laws apply. Information regarding the ownership of Phyllis Playter copyright can be found at http://tyler.hrc.utexas.edu/ (viewed February 2016).

See also NLW, John Cowper Powys and Phyllis Playter manuscripts.

Published

Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru = The National Library of Wales