MS 447 01

MS 447 01

L. H. Myers papers: Correspondence

Series

1895-1955

4 boxes

The correspondence consists of over 550 letters documenting the life of L. H. Myers and his wife Elsie Palmer Myers. Just over 300 letters are from L. H. ('Leo') Myers to Elsie, and date from 1901 to 1944, although the majority of them are undated. The early letters are love letters, with references to travel and literature, while the later letters touch most often on domestic matters. Leo explains his wish to commit suicide in five letters dated 1943-1944; one of the letters carries a postscript dated the night he died, and is accompanied by a letter of the same date written to his children Eve and E.Q. The bulk of the rest of the correspondence consists of letters to Leo and Elsie from friends, family members, other writers, and fans. Correspondents (most of whom are represented by one or two letters) include Boris Anrep, Clive Bell, Elizabeth Bibesco, Lilian Bowes-Lyon, David Cecil, G. Lowes Dickinson, Jacob Epstein, Llewellyn Wyn Griffith, Charlotte Franken Haldane, Leslie G. Hartley, E. McKnight Kauffer, C. Day Lewis, David Lindsay, Lydia Lopokova, Desmond MacCarthy, Sir Edward Howard Marsh, Laurence Miller, Ottoline Morrell, Raymond Mortimer, John Morris, Frances Partridge, Cecil Pinsent, J. B. Priestley, R. Ellis Roberts, Violet Schiff, Charles Tennyson, Stephen Tomlin, and R. C. Trevelyan. 7 ALS from Iris Origo in Italy dated 1944-1945 touch on her experiences there during the war. 22 ALS and TLS from Geoffrey Pyke dated 1946-1948 include a note to Elsie written the night he committed suicide. Pyke's letters are accompanied by a typescript carbon copy script of a radio broadcast made in 1947. 10 ALS from Virginia Woolf to Elsie relate to social engagements, as do the individual letters from Duncan Grant and Osbert Sitwell. The correspondence also includes over 50 letters of condolence to Elsie after Leo's death, and a smaller group of letters written to Elsie four years later, after the death of her son-in-law Kit Nicholson. Family letters include a group of 50 letters from E. Q. Nicholson ('Bob') to her mother, a few of them dated 1943-1948, with many others undated. There are 10 ALS by Leo Myers when a child to his mother and father, with letters to him from the same period from his father F. W. H. Myers, his grandmother Susan Harriet Marshall Myers, and his aunt Dorothy Tennant, whose letter is in French in block letters. Other family letters include those to Elsie Myers from Eve Myers Clark, Eveleen Tennant Myers, and Dorothy Palmer; a group of letters from Eveleen Tennant Myers to E. Q. Myers; a letter from F. W. H. Myers to Captain Metcalfe dated 5 Aug 1885; and an 1895 letter from Henry Irving to Susan Harriet Marshall Myers.

Acquired by purchase.