Kyffin Williams letter,

A letter, 26 May 1970, from Kyffin Williams, [London], to Meic Stephens, [Literature Director of the Welsh Arts Council], attempting to secure financial support to publish his book on his 1968-1969 visit to Patagonia.
The book remained unpublished, although parts of it appeared as 'An Artist in Welsh Patagonia', in The Anglo-Welsh Review, 18.42 (February 1970), 5-32, or would be adapted for his book A Wider Sky (Llandysul, 1991). The letter contains references to Christopher Falkus of prospective publishers Weidenfeld [& Nicolson].

Kyffin Williams, artist, was born in Llangefni, Anglesey, 9 May 1918. He was educated at Shrewsbury School and articled to the land agents, Yale and Hardcastle, Pwllheli, 1936-1939. He served with the Royal Welch Fusiliers from 1937 to 1941, but on failing an army medical examination because of his epilepsy he was advised to take up art by his doctor. Hence in 1941 he entered the Slade School of Fine Art, and from 1944 to 1973 was Senior Art Master at Highgate School in London. In 1968 he was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship to record the Welsh community in Patagonia.
He was elected President of the Royal Cambrian Academy from 1969 to 1976 and again from 1992; an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1970, and a Royal Academician in 1974. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the University Colleges of Swansea (1989), Bangor (1991) and Aberystwyth (1992). In 1973 he was made an Honorary MA and in 1993 an Honorary Doctor of Letters of the University of Wales. Other honours bestowed on him were the OBE (1982), the Cymmrodorion Medal (1991), and a KBE (2000).
Exhibitions of his work have been held at the following London Galleries: Colnaghi's, the Leicester Galleries, Thackeray Gallery; also the Howard Roberts and Albany Galleries, Cardiff; Tegfryn Gallery, Menai Bridge; and other provincial venues.
His work is found in the collections of the Arts Council of Great Britain, National Museum of Wales, National Library of Wales, Welsh Arts Council, Royal Academy, Contemporary Art Society, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, art galleries of Newport, Swansea, Hereford, Coventry, the Chantrey Bequest and very many private collections. A major retrospective exhibition was staged at the National Museum of Wales in 1987.
Kyffin Williams's autobiography, Across the Straits, was published in 1973, and his second autobiographical volume, A Wider Sky, in 1991. Other works include Boyo Ballads (1995), Portraits (1996), The land and the sea (1998), Drawings (2001), Cutting images (2002), and Gwladfa Kyffin / Kyffin in Patagonia (2004). Since 1974 he lived and worked at Pwllfanogl on the edge of the Menai Straits below Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll, Anglesey. He died in September 2006.

Meic Stephens, poet and editor, was born in Trefforest and educated at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth and the University of Rennes. From 1962 to 1966, he taught French in Ebbw Vale. He established The Triskel Press at Merthyr Tydfil, where he lived at the time, and also launched the periodical Poetry Wales, which he edited from 1965 until 1973; also served for a year on the staff of the Western Mail. In 1967, Stephens was appointed Literary Director with the Welsh Arts Council. He published his first poetic works in Triad (1963). His work Linguistic Minorities in Western Europe (Llandysul, 1976) involved a detailed study of culture and politics in sixteen European states. Amongst the works edited by Stephens are an anthology of Anglo-Welsh poetry titled The Lilting House (with John Stuart Williams, London and Llandybïe, 1969), Artists in Wales (three volumes, Llandysul, 1971, 1973, 1977), the Writers of Wales series (with R. Brinley Jones, 1970- ), the poetic anthology Green Horse (with Peter Finch, Swansea, 1978), and Cydymaith i Lenyddiaeth Cymru (Llandysul, 1986).

Mr Colin Huggett; Tregarth; Purchase; December 2012.

Kyffin Williams, artist, was born in Llangefni, Anglesey, 9 May 1918. He was educated at Shrewsbury School and articled to the land agents, Yale and Hardcastle, Pwllheli, 1936-1939. He served with the Royal Welch Fusiliers from 1937 to 1941, but on failing an army medical examination because of his epilepsy he was advised to take up art by his doctor. Hence in 1941 he entered the Slade School of Fine Art, and from 1944 to 1973 was Senior Art Master at Highgate School in London. In 1968 he was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship to record the Welsh community in Patagonia.
He was elected President of the Royal Cambrian Academy from 1969 to 1976 and again from 1992; an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1970, and a Royal Academician in 1974. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the University Colleges of Swansea (1989), Bangor (1991) and Aberystwyth (1992). In 1973 he was made an Honorary MA and in 1993 an Honorary Doctor of Letters of the University of Wales. Other honours bestowed on him were the OBE (1982), the Cymmrodorion Medal (1991), and a KBE (2000).
Exhibitions of his work have been held at the following London Galleries: Colnaghi's, the Leicester Galleries, Thackeray Gallery; also the Howard Roberts and Albany Galleries, Cardiff; Tegfryn Gallery, Menai Bridge; and other provincial venues.
His work is found in the collections of the Arts Council of Great Britain, National Museum of Wales, National Library of Wales, Welsh Arts Council, Royal Academy, Contemporary Art Society, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, art galleries of Newport, Swansea, Hereford, Coventry, the Chantrey Bequest and very many private collections. A major retrospective exhibition was staged at the National Museum of Wales in 1987.
Kyffin Williams's autobiography, Across the Straits, was published in 1973, and his second autobiographical volume, A Wider Sky, in 1991. Other works include Boyo Ballads (1995), Portraits (1996), The land and the sea (1998), Drawings (2001), Cutting images (2002), and Gwladfa Kyffin / Kyffin in Patagonia (2004). Since 1974 he lived and worked at Pwllfanogl on the edge of the Menai Straits below Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll, Anglesey. He died in September 2006.

Meic Stephens, poet and editor, was born in Trefforest and educated at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth and the University of Rennes. From 1962 to 1966, he taught French in Ebbw Vale. He established The Triskel Press at Merthyr Tydfil, where he lived at the time, and also launched the periodical Poetry Wales, which he edited from 1965 until 1973; also served for a year on the staff of the Western Mail. In 1967, Stephens was appointed Literary Director with the Welsh Arts Council. He published his first poetic works in Triad (1963). His work Linguistic Minorities in Western Europe (Llandysul, 1976) involved a detailed study of culture and politics in sixteen European states. Amongst the works edited by Stephens are an anthology of Anglo-Welsh poetry titled The Lilting House (with John Stuart Williams, London and Llandybïe, 1969), Artists in Wales (three volumes, Llandysul, 1971, 1973, 1977), the Writers of Wales series (with R. Brinley Jones, 1970- ), the poetic anthology Green Horse (with Peter Finch, Swansea, 1978), and Cydymaith i Lenyddiaeth Cymru (Llandysul, 1986).

Title based on contents.

Preferred citation: NLW MS 23981E, ff. 57-59.

Usual copyright laws apply. Information regarding ownership of Kyffin Williams copyright can be found at http://tyler.hrc.utexas.edu/ (viewed February 2013).

For drafts of the 'Untitled book on Patagonia' see NLW, Kyffin Williams Archive A5/3.

Published