[ Littleton Powys, second-eldest of the Powys family, Sherborne schoolmaster and naturalist.] Three Autograph Letters Signed (all 'Littleton') to the journalist Collin Brooks ('Collin'), mainly regarding his late wife the novelist Elizabeth Myers.

Littleton Powys was the second-eldest of eleven, his siblings including writers John Cowper Powys, T. F. Powys and Llewelyn Powys, architect A. R. Powys, artist Gertrude Powys, lacemaker Marian Powys, and poet and novelist Philippa Powys. His autobiography 'The Joy of it' was published in 1937, with the sequel 'Still the Joy of it' appearing in 1956. The three letters are in good condition, lightly aged. They total 8pp., 12mo. The main topic is the correspondence between the recipient Brooks and Powys's wife Elizabeth Myers, which would feature in Powys's 1951 edition of her letters. In the first (5 May 1948) he states that he is 'sending you back Elizabeth's letters; what pleasure she had in her correspondence with you! Bless you! You will scarcely believe it but I have copied practically the whole lot out – There are some so full of interest and wisdom that they should appear in any memoirs of her […] all through this long correspondence one comes upon passages which should be preserved, and I thought it best to have my own collection of them so that I could pick and choose as I want them.' He reassures him that he will take care to avoid anything that 'seems too personal or may cause trouble as her comments on C & H – How she would have hated that [furor?] now!' He turns to the publication of her short stories, of which he is 'Only printing 3000 Copies': 'It has been a very great pleasure to me to read them and I felt that the correspondence reached a singularly high level when you were endeavoring to get to know each other with questions on books and art and music and religion & politics'. Both correspondents emerge 'with flying colours: to love a person you must admire him and that admiration was present with each of you'. He was also pleased with the references to him. In a postscript he promises to submit any passages to Brooks before publication. The second letter (20 August 1948) is the longest at 4pp., 12mo. It begins: 'Blessings on you, Collin, my dear, for writing that little letter to me. Firstly I loved it because it seemed for the moment to bring our dear Elizabeth back to life again: so well do I remember how happy she was when she received your enthusiastic letters! In her stories too you will find her living in every page: and be reminded of some critic's opinion of her first short story which appeared when she was 18 in the Countryman' (quotation follows). He is happy that “at last “Good Beds” is going to be published': 'The understanding with Elizabeth was that it was to come out in the Spring – a sort of stop gap before her novel “the Governor” appeared. As you will remember this was only half finished & I had to destroy it.' He gives news of the forthcoming second volume of his autobiography, 'in which I endeavour to show that the influence of two good women can, even when they go, make a man's life still worth living: in which I push forward a crusade of mine on the importance of Field Natural History in Education'. He lists other topics of the book, and states that he is 'coming up to London to see the new “Pharaoh” at Chapman & Hall about my book. The Pharaoh who knows not Joseph: For Arthur Waugh was a very old friend of mine and very fond of Elizabeth and [?] superintended my first book.' In the third letter (28 April 1949) he returns to 'dear Elizabeth's letters to you', which he has been rereading: 'What a lovely collection it is! I think that possibly she is at her best in 1944, in November of that year she had hat bad attack of bronchitis, and there does not seem to be quite the same vitality in them afterwards. But all the time I keep saying to myself, What a wonderful gift!' He will find it difficult to edit the letters, having 'enjoyed every word so much'. He concludes, regarding the publication of his wife's letters: 'I am getting them in gradually, but many of her friends are separated from the letters & it will take time to get them – I am sorry Nowell Smith has destroyed his.' Accompanying the letters are photocopies of two 8vo pages of type transcriptions from Brooks's journals, the first page carrying an entry dated 21 August 1948 (Myers' short stories 'amazingly good', receipt of a 'pathetic letter' from Littleton, regret that he did not do enough for Myers), and the second 11 December 1949 (how Littleton has asked him to write the preface to his memoir, Walter de la Mare and J. C. Powys having refused: 'I do not know what Littleton will think of my linking Elizabeth Myers and Ann Reid in my “table talk.” Perhaps he will like it. His devotion to Benny's memory is striking and poignant: how idyllic a marriage it must have been.'). Also a cutting of a review of Myers' 'Good Beds – Men Only'.