MS 586 02 03 04

MS 586 02 03 04

Rupert Brooke collection: Letters to Noel Olivier from Ka Cox and Edward Marsh

File

"From 1913 [Edward Marsh's appartment became] a virtual second home for Rupert Brooke. Early in 1912 his critical appreciation of Brooke's poems in the Poetry Review brought him the acquaintance of Harold Monro; a casual remark of Brooke's led to the scheme of an anthology of modern verse which Marsh undertook to edit, under the title Georgian Poetry, with Monro's Poetry Bookshop as the publishing house. The anthology appeared in December 1912 and eventually developed into a series of five volumes published over a period of ten years. During those years Marsh introduced to the general reader almost three generations of poets. Among the original ‘Georgians’ were Brooke, J. E. Flecker, Lascelles Abercrombie, Gordon Bottomley, W. H. Davies, Walter de la Mare, and D. H. Lawrence. In 1917 a new group appeared, characterized by the powerful ‘realistic’ war poetry of Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Nichols, and Robert Graves." (From ODNB). Katherine Laird Cox, known as Ka, (1887-1938) met Rupert Brooke in 1911 and a chaste relationship followed. Brooke's unresolved relationships with both Noel Olivier and Ka Cox precipitated a nervous breakdown in early 1912, following which he consummated his relationship with Ka. However this led to more misery and there is some evidence to suggest that Ka bore his stillborn child later that year.

1912-1936

1 folder of letters

A collection of seven letters from Ka Cox to Noel Olivier, from 1912 to 1936. Also included are two letters from Edward Marsh to Noel Olivier from 1916, two envelopes, a picture of Old Hall, Ramsden and two pencil sketches by an unknown artist that look to have come from a bound book

These letters are part of the papers that were left to Noel Olivier's grandaughter, Pippa Harris, and then sold to Howard Moseley.

In a folder.