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Alyse Gregory papers

 Collection
Call Number: YCAL MSS 163

Scope and Contents

The Alyse Gregory Papers consist chiefly of Gregory's correspondence, with smaller amounts of her diaries, writings, notebooks, artworks, photographs, and other personal papers. Also present are small groups of papers of people associated with Gregory which were in her possession at the time of her death, including correspondence, diaries, and writings of Llewelyn Powys; writings of John Cowper Powys and Edna St. Vincent Millay; and diaries of Gertrude Powys. Accompanying these is a small amount of correspondence and notes of Rosemary Manning concerning Gregory's papers. The collection documents Gregory's literary friendships and personal relationships, particularly with Llewelyn Powys, his siblings and the Powys circle, colleagues associated with The Dial, and the Gregory family; her writing and intellectual interests; and her efforts to edit her diaries and correspondence and those of Llewelyn Powys. The papers span the years 1888-1982, with the bulk of materials dating from 1939-1967.

The collection is housed in 78 boxes and is organized into ten series: Correspondence, Diaries, Writings, Notebooks, Photographs, Artworks, Clippings and Other Printed Material, Other Alyse Gregory Papers, Papers of Others Held by Alyse Gregory, and Rosemary Manning Papers. Oversize materials are stored in a portfolio. Restricted Fragile Papers, stored in boxes 76-78, contain materials for which reference photocopies have been supplied in the main files.

Series I, Correspondence , (boxes 1-54), is organized into two subseries: General Correspondence and Gregory and Pinneo Family Correspondence. In both subseries, incoming and outgoing letters are interfiled.

General Correspondence concerns Gregory's friendships, particularly with the Powys family and their circle, and her literary and other intellectual interests. Most letters date from after 1939 and concern Gregory's life in England following her husband's death, including discussion of experiences in Dorset during the Second World War; response to writings about The Dial and the Powys family; disposition of her papers; and experiences relating to aging. Also present is earlier correspondence concerning her social reform and literary career in New York, including transcripts of Gregory's letters to Florida Scott-Maxwell, concerning social reform and suffrage work; a few letters from Maurice Robertson ("Maurice Stevens" in The Day is Gone) and Van Wyck Brooks; and larger files of letters from Randolph Bourne, Scofield Thayer (includes poems), James Sibley Watson, Jr., and Marianne Moore. Later correspondence relating to Scofield Thayer includes letters from Hermann P. Riccius, Constance Williams, and C. P. Williamson.

A small amount of correspondence with Llewelyn Powys is present, including intimate letters, notes, and poems. Many of Gregory's letters to others dating from the period 1936-1939 concern Powys's illness and death, and later correspondence discusses memories of him, including single letters from Lisaly Gujer and Dr. F. Häberlin, who cared for him during his illness in Switzerland. Gregory corresponded with all of the Powys siblings and many of their spouses and children. John Cowper Powys and Phyllis Playter are represented by extensive files; in addition to those of Llewelyn Powys, other concentrations of letters are present for Gertrude, Philippa, William, Lucy, Mary Casey (all outgoing), Faith Oliver, and Francis. A single letter from Theodore Francis Powys is present. Correspondence concerning Theodore's family after his death includes letters from his wife, Violet Dodds, their daughter Theodora Gay, and Theodora's companion, Geoffrey, Count Potocki de Montalk.

In addition to files for John Cowper Powys (49 folders) and Phyllis Playter (99 folders), correspondence is most extensive for Gamel Woolsey (84 folders), Claude Colleer Abbott (94 folders; includes poems), and Valentine Ackland (24 folders; includes poems). Other major literary correspondents are: Redwood Anderson (most outgoing; incoming includes a poem), Gerald Brenan (includes poems), Gladys Brooks, Vere H. Collins, Giovanni Costigan, C. G. L. Du Cann, Eve Elwin, Derrick Leon (concerning Marcel Proust), Marianne Moore, Marie Nordlinger and her daughter Pauline Green (concerning Reynaldo Hahn and Marcel Proust), Alan Osbourne (concerning Robert Louis Stevenson), Sylvia Townsend Warner, James Sibley Watson, Jr., Louis Wilkinson (most outgoing) and Joan Lambert Wilkinson (most outgoing). Correspondence with other friends includes extensive files for Dorothy Blodgett, Madeleine Walker Curry, John Fisher, Derek Lindsay, Henriette Metcalf ("Fifirella" in The Day is Gone), Peggy Newman, Rosamond Rose, Florida Scott-Maxwell (most outgoing), Oliver Stoner (most outgoing), and Giles Wordsworth.

Other correspondence includes letters from: William Rose Benét (includes poems), Eugen Boissevan, Betty Burroughs, Van Wyck Brooks, Brigid Brophy, Kenneth Burke, Henry Seidel Canby, E. E. Cummings, Marion Morehouse Cummings, Agnes de Lima, Sigrid de Lima, Malcolm Elwin, Patience Empson, Arthur Davison Ficke, Gladys Ficke, Robert Gibbings, Stephen Gooden, Mona Gooden, Lawrence Gowing, Evelyn Hardy, Anne Holahan, Mark Holloway, Margaret Holloway, Alvin Saunders Johnson, Rosemary Manning, Reginald Marsh, William Q. Maxwell, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Naomi Mitchison, Raymond Mortimer, Lewis Mumford, George Painter, Peter Quennell, Paul Rosenfeld, Marie Hippolyte Ponsin Rôze, Bertrand Russell, George Santayana, Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant, Gertrude Stein, James Stern, Philip Toynbee, Jean Untermeyer, Richard Heron Ward, William Wasserstrom, Oliver Marlow Wilkinson, Edmund Wilson, Sophia Wittenberg, and Carl Zigrosser.

Many incoming letters are annotated or accompanied by notes written by Gregory clarifying dates or commenting on content. Typed transcripts, when present, are filed separately following each correspondent. Most transcripts were prepared by Gregory, often with abridged content and appended notes. An exception is transcripts of letters from Gamel Woolsey, which were prepared and extensively annotated by Kenneth Hopkins. While most corresponding originals are also in the collection, some letters are present only as transcripts. During processing, dates supplied on transcripts have been transferred to originals, when present. Letters from correspondents to third parties are filed separately following transcripts.

The second subseries, Gregory and Pinneo Family Correspondence, consists of correspondence of several family members with Gregory and with others. Family members represented include Alyse Gregory's father, James G. Gregory; mother, Jean L. Pinneo Gregory; sister, Jean L. Byington; brother, Ward Gregory; father's sister, Virginia A. White; mother's sister, Dotha Stone Pinneo; mother's brother, James A. Pinneo; and sister's daughter, Joan Byington.

Most letters are between Gregory and her mother, dating from Gregory's childhood through her residence in New York, marriage, and relocation to England. The last of these letters, written during Llewelyn Powys's illness in Switzerland, concern her mother's declining mental and physical health following a stroke. Other letters from this period are from Gregory to her uncle, James A. Pinneo, who served as her mother's caretaker. Earlier letters of Jean L. Pinneo Gregory to other family members concern a trip to Naples in 1905 and Ward Gregory's illness in 1916-1917. Two chronological sets of transcripts, prepared by Gregory, consist of letters of her mother, for which most originals are present in the collection, and letters of her own, including early letters not present as originals.

Series II, Diaries , (boxes 55-59), is organized into two subseries: Original Diaries, consisting chiefly of diary volumes and accompanying notes, and Transcripts, which were prepared by Gregory during her later life. Original Diaries includes a volume with brief entries for 1925-1926, followed by diaries with extensive and continuous entries from 1930 through the last day of Gregory's life, August 27, 1967. Many diaries include later annotations and evidence of editing for transcription. Transcripts include several typescripts edited from original diaries present in the collection, preceded by holograph volumes of extracts from earlier diaries for which originals are not present.

Series III, Writings , (box 60), is organized into four subseries: Books, Short Stories, Essays, and Other Writings. Materials pertaining to books include a biography of Randolph Bourne, an unfinished novel, and reviews of published novels and The Day if Gone. Two short stories are present, including a clipping of a story published in Cornhill Magazine. The bulk of materials are essays, including typescripts and clippings from The Freeman, The Freethinker, and other journals. Most subjects are literary; also present are an essay on the life of Philippa Powys and drafts of essays concerning expatriation and aging. Other Writings includes clippings of book reviews written by Gregory, many published in The Dial, and notes concerning her editing of Llewelyn Powys's papers.

Series IV, Notebooks , (boxes 61-62), contains volumes arranged alphabetically by title, followed by untitled volumes in chronological order. Most notes pertain to books on philosophic and literary subjects. Other contents are lists of books, quotations, and a few household notes.

Series V, Photographs , (boxes 63-66), is organized into four subseries: Albums, People, Places, and Photograph Envelopes. Two albums are present, including a volume of uncaptioned photographs, apparently made during Gregory's early travels in Europe, ca. 1905. This album includes images of Gregory and Marie Hippolyte Ponsin Rôze, as well as many unidentified people. A second album contains captioned photographs made by unidentified travelers during a cruise to Indonesia, ca. 1920, including images of shipboard scenes and views of Palestine, Port Said, Algiers, Pedang, and other locations in Indonesia.

The second subseries, People, includes several copies of a late snapshot of Gregory, and an early portrait of her and Marianne Moore in the Dial offices, taken by Doris Ulmann. Several photographs, including one image of Llewelyn Powys and several of unidentified people and places, appear to have been taken in Switzerland. Other items include several photographs of Laure Hayman, a friend of Marcel Proust, sent to Gregory by Henriette Metcalf; a photograph of John Cowper Powys with an unidentified man; a group of photographs of William Powys and his family; many photographs of correspondents represented in Series I; and a few photographs of East Chaldon neighbors. Also present are many family photographs sent to Gregory by James Sibley Watson, Jr., dating from the 1950s-60s, showing himself, his wife Hildegarde Lasell Watson, and their children and grandchildren.

The third subseries, Places, consists of a few photographs of Gregory's last home at Velthams Cottage and of unidentified houses. The last subseries, Photograph Envelopes, contains envelopes from English and Swiss film developers.

Series VI, Artworks , (box 67), arranged alphabetically by artist, consists of a small number of reproductions and original works, mostly correspondents represented in Series I. Other materials include original engravings by Robert Gibbings and Stephen Gooden.

Series VII, Clippings and Other Printed Material , (box 68), contains subject files arranged alphabetically. Most subjects are names of people represented in Series I, with materials including clippings by and about the person, and in some cases typed transcripts of published poems. Other materials include clippings relating to Gregory's marriage, a small scrapbook of clippings about her father's death, a printed map showing East Chaldon and Chydyok, a Dial clip sheet from 1925, and a few clippings about The Dial and Patchin Place.

Series VIII, Other Alyse Gregory Papers , (box 69), is arranged alphabetically by type of material. Materials relating to Gregory and Llewelyn Powys include a typescript note left by Gregory at her death; lists of Powys's manuscripts owned by her; locks of Powys's hair, legal documents concerning his autopsy and estate; and notes of conversation with Powys taken by Gregory at his deathbed. Also present are address books, notes concerning the Gregory and Pinneo families, an essay about John Redwood Anderson by Frank Merrick, and a scrapbook made by Annetta Mullins, a friend of Gregory who was mentally ill.

Series IX, Papers of Others Held by Alyse Gregory , (boxes 70-74), is organized into four subseries: Llewelyn Powys Papers, Edna St. Vincent Millay Writings, John Cowper Powys Writings, and Gertrude Powys Diaries.

The largest subseries, Llewelyn Powys Papers, is organized into subgroups of Correspondence, Diaries, Writings, and Other Papers. Most correspondence consists of transcripts prepared by Gregory from Powys's outgoing letters, for which originals are not present. Transcripts, some with notes by Gregory, include early letters to his family, letters written to literary friends, and replies to requests for his advice and philosophic views. A smaller amount of original incoming and outgoing letters includes many names also represented in Gregory's correspondence in Series I. Concentrations of transcripts and originals are present for Gerald Brenan, H. Rivers Pollock, John Cowper Powys, Littleton Powys, and Philippa Powys.

The second subgroup, Diaries, includes a diary kept during travel to Palestine in 1928-29, two later diaries with a few brief entries, and typescripts of extracts from early diaries, prepared by Gregory. Writings includes essays, mainly typed transcripts made by Gregory and Kenneth Hopkins, clippings of book reviews written by Powys for the New York Herald Tribune, and proofreading notes made by Gregory and John Cowper Powys. The final subgroup, Other Llewelyn Powys Papers, consists of a notebook of Francis Bacon quotations written by Powys's friend May Chesshire, with a presentation inscription from Powys, and clippings and transcripts of articles about Powys and his writings.

Edna St. Vincent Millay Writings includes holograph poems sent to Llewelyn Powys by Millay; poems from Buck in the Snow, transcribed by Powys in holograph; and typescript drafts of poems from Huntsman, What Quarry? and Wine From These Grapes. John Cowper Powys Writings consists of a small amount of materials, including a draft of his introduction to A Baker's Dozen, a collection of essays by Llewelyn Powys, and drafts of a memoir of Llewelyn, apparently written late in John Cowper's life. Gertrude Powys Diaries consists of several printed pocket diaries with brief entries, arranged chronologically. The diaries were kept during her later years at Chydyok with Gregory and Philippa Powys.

Series X, Rosemary Manning Papers , (box 75), is organized into two subseries: Correspondence and Other Papers. Correspondence concerns Gregory's death, memories of her, and Manning's interest in publishing Gregory's papers. Most items are incoming letters from friends of Gregory also represented in Series I. Also present are letters and notes from Gregory concerning her estate. Other items include letters from Ark Press, Donald Gallup, Richard Perceval Graves, Alan Parkes, and other publishers and Powys associates. The second subseries, Other Papers, includes reviews of The Cry of a Gull; clippings concerning Gregory, The Dial, and the Powys family; and notes made by Manning concerning Gregory's papers.

Dates

  • 1888 - 1982
  • Majority of material found within 1939 - 1967

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

The materials are open for research.

Boxes 76-78 and cold storage: Restricted fragile material. Reference surrogates have been substituted in the main files. For further information consult the appropriate curator.

Conditions Governing Use

The Alyse Gregory Papers are the physical property of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the appropriate curator.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The Alyse Gregory Papers were acquired by the Library through gift and purchase over a period of years. Accessions include gifts of Alyse Gregory and purchases from Alyse Gregory on the George B. Alvord Fund and the Milton Garver Fund, 1950-1967; a gift of Alyse Gregory through her executor, Rosemary Manning, 1987; a gift of Lis Whitelaw, 1987; purchases from Bertram Rota on the Eugene G. O'Neill Memorial Fund and the Bradford F. and Lila L. Swan Fund, 1995-2001; and purchases from Judith Stinton on the Eugene G. O'Neill Memorial Fund and the Elizabeth Wakeman Dwight Memorial Fund, 1996-1998.

Extent

33.41 Linear Feet ((78 boxes) + 1 portfolio, cold storage)

Language of Materials

English

Catalog Record

A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog

Persistent URL

https://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/beinecke.gregory

Abstract

The collection consists chiefly of correspondence, with smaller amounts of diaries, writings, notebooks, artworks, photographs, and other personal papers. Also present are papers of others closely associated with Gregory, including papers of Llewelyn Powys; writings of John Cowper Powys and Edna St. Vincent Millay; and diaries of Gertrude Powys. Accompanying these is a small amount of correspondence and notes of Rosemary Manning, concerning Gregory's papers.

ALYSE GREGORY (1884-1967)

Alyse Gregory was born in Norwalk, Connecticut, on July 19, 1884. Her father, James G. Gregory (Yale 1865), was a prominent citizen in Norwalk, where he practiced medicine, was a founder of the city hospital and library, and served as a bank officer. Her mother, Jean L. Pinneo, was a granddaughter of Bezaleel Pinneo, pastor of the First Congregationalist Church in Milford, Connecticut, and a daughter of Timothy Stone Pinneo (Yale 1824), an editor of the McGuffey reader series and author of school textbooks. Alyse Gregory attended schools in Norwalk and was encouraged by her family to study singing. At age fifteen, she went to Paris to study with opera singer Marie Hippolyte Ponsin Rôze. Supported by a succession of patrons and teachers, she continued to pursue training as an opera singer in New York and during a second sojourn in Paris with singer Katherine Fiske. In addition to travel in France, Gregory made extended trips to England and Italy, visiting her sister Jean and brother-in-law Homer Byington, who served as American Consul in Naples.

By 1910, Gregory had decided against a career as a singer. Returning to Norwalk, she read philosophy, observed local politics and factory working conditions, and discovered passionate interests in social justice for the poor and women's right to vote. Gregory was active in suffrage organizations during the years before the First World War, organizing and participating in demonstrations in Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey. In 1914, she visited Jean and Homer Byington in England, observing working conditions in the mining industry and unsuccessfully seeking war work. Returning to the United States, Gregory settled in New York, where she worked as a writer and speaker in labor and education reform. During this period she was drawn into a social circle centering on social work, suffrage, and pacifism. Gregory discusses many of her relationships with these friends and lovers in her autobiography The Day is Gone, sometimes employing pseudonyms. Friendships established during this period include those with literary critic Randolph Bourne and social reformers Maurice Robertson ("Maurice Stevens"), Agnes de Lima, and Florida Scott-Maxwell. Gregory spent part of 1916 with her mother and her brother Ward, a doctor, in Colorado Springs, where Ward was seeking treatment for recurring tuberculosis. Ward Gregory died in Colorado Springs in 1917.

Around 1918, Gregory briefly operated a tea and flower shop in New York, attracting a literary clientele that included William Rose Benét, Stephen Vincent Benét, Henry Hoyt, Scofield Thayer, and James Sibley Watson, Jr. Through friendships with these customers, she was introduced to a larger literary circle and became acquainted with The Dial, a magazine of literature and art acquired and reorganized by Thayer and Watson in 1919. Disillusioned with social work, and finding her business financially unprofitable, Gregory soon closed the shop and found work in statistics and copywriting at the J. Walter Thompson advertising company. She left advertising after two years, deciding to earn her living as a writer. With encouragement from editors such as William Rose Bénet and Van Wyck Brooks, Gregory published book reviews and essays. During this period, she became more closely associated with The Dial, and in 1924 she succeeded Gilbert Seldes as managing editor. In this position, Gregory worked with Scofield Thayer and became acquainted with writers associated with the magazine, including Amy Lowell and Marianne Moore.

In 1921 Gregory met and fell in love with the English author Llewelyn Powys, who had recently settled in New York to pursue his writing career. By 1922 Llewelyn had moved into Gregory's home on Patchin Place, in Greenwich Village, and Gregory was soon drawn into the large and closely-knit Powys family, establishing friendships with Llewelyn's brother, author John Cowper Powys, and his companion Phyllis Playter, who settled nearby on Patchin Place; his sister Marian, who operated a lacemaking business in New York; and his sister Philippa, a writer, who made an extended visit from England in 1923. Llewelyn Powys had been treated for tuberculosis in 1909, and in the summer of 1924 he suffered a recurrence during a trip to the Rocky Mountains with James Sibley Watson, Jr. Seeking a healthful climate, Gregory and Powys moved to Montoma, New York, in September, 1924. In October they were married, a decision that simplified their shared lives, in spite of Gregory's reservations about marriage.

By 1926, Powys wished to return to his homeland, and Gregory decided to resign her position at The Dial in order to settle with him in England. In May, 1926, they moved to a cottage on the Dorset coast at White Nose, living in close contact with Llewelyn's brother, author Theodore Francis Powys and his family, and their sisters Gertrude, a painter, and Philippa. Gregory also came to know the other Powys siblings and their families: Littleton, a schoolmaster, Albert Reginald, an architect, William, a rancher in Kenya, and Lucy, married to Hounsell Penny. In 1926, Gregory published her first novel, She Shall Have Music; the same year Powys published The Verdict of Bridlegoose, a book describing his experiences in the United States, including his early relationship with Gregory. In January, 1926, they traveled to Vienna to visit Scofield Thayer, who was mentally ill and seeking treatment from Sigmund Freud. Gregory met with Thayer and Freud but was unable to help, and Thayer did not recover. Although her correspondence with Thayer ceased in 1926, Gregory remained in contact with Marianne Moore, who succeeded him as editor of The Dial.

In 1927 Powys was invited to write book reviews for the New York Herald Tribune, and he and Gregory returned to New York, again living on Patchin Place. Powys began a love affair with the poet Gamel Woolsey, which continued for several years, with Gregory's consent. Although she confided pain and fear of losing Llewelyn in her diaries, Gregory did not interfere with the affair and maintained lifelong friendships with both Woolsey and Gerald Brenan, who were married in 1931. After returning to England in 1928, Gregory and Powys traveled through France and Italy to Palestine. They spent part of 1930-31 in upstate New York with Edna St. Vincent Millay, her husband Eugene Boissevain, and John Cowper Powys and Phyllis Playter, and in early 1931 they traveled in the West Indies.

In October, 1931, they moved from White Nose to East Chaldon, Dorset, settling at Chydyok, a remote farmhouse, joining Gertrude and Philippa Powys, who had lived at Chydyok since 1924. Powys's life continued to be endangered by tuberculosis, and in 1936 he and Gregory went to Clavadel, a sanatorium near Davos, Switzerland, where he had been treated in 1909. Powys continued to write at Chydyok and Clavadel, producing works including Love and Death, an autobiographical novel drawing on his affair with Gamel Woolsey, and many of his best-regarded collections of essays. In 1938 Gregory published a collection of essays, Wheels on Gravel, with an introduction by John Cowper Powys. Gregory and Llewelyn remained in Switzerland for three years, but Powys never fully regained his health. He died at Clavadel on December 1, 1939.

After Powys's death, Gregory returned to England under difficult wartime conditions, reaching Chydyok in late December and resuming residence with Gertrude and Philippa Powys. She was unable to repatriate Llewelyn Powys's ashes until after the war ended. In her diaries, Gregory confided her inner life of grief and reconciliation, philosophic inquiry, and intense introspection. At the same time, she devoted herself to a growing volume of correspondence centering on the Powys circle and other literary friends, including John Cowper Powys, Phyllis Playter, Gamel Woolsey, Gerald Brenan, Louis Wilkinson ("Louis Marlow"), Joan Lambert Wilkinson, Marianne Moore, Claude Colleer Abbott, Valentine Ackland, Sylvia Townsend Warner, and John Redwood Anderson. Many correspondents visited Chydyok, and Gregory made trips to the United States in 1951 and 1955. She continued to publish essays and contributed an introduction to a collection of Llewelyn Powys's letters, edited by Louis Wilkinson in 1943. In 1948 she published The Day is Gone, an autobiography covering her early life up to her appointment as managing editor of The Dial in 1924.

As Gregory grew older, Chydyok's isolated location became impractical. Following Gertrude Powys's death in 1952, both Philippa Powys and Gregory left Chydyok, Gregory leaving in 1957 to live at Velthams Cottage, near Tiverton, Devon, with her friend Rosamond Rose. After Rose's death in 1958, another friend, Oliver Stoner, occupied part of Rose's vacated house with his family. Gregory continued her diaries and maintained her extensive correspondence, now including an expanded literary circle, Dorset friends, and a younger generation of Powys nieces and nephews. Since Llewelyn's death, Gregory had worked on transcription of his papers, and in her later years she edited many of her own diaries and letters. In the course of this work, she requested the return of original letters from some of her longtime correspondents.

Gregory's health and independence declined in her eighties. Her strong belief in euthanasia was well known to her friends, and after making careful preparations for death, she took an overdose of barbiturates on August 27, 1967, at the age of eighty-three. Recognizing the value of Gregory's autobiographical writings, Rosemary Manning, who served as her literary executor, continued to solicit letters from correspondents. Until her death in 1988, Manning intermittently investigated prospects for publishing extracts from Gregory's papers. The Cry of a Gull, edited by Michael Adam from diary transcripts prepared by Gregory, was published in 1973.

Works by Alyse Gregory: She Shall Have Music. novel. (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1926). King Log and Lady Lea. novel. (London: Constable, 1929). Hester Craddock. novel. (London: Longmans, Green, 1931). Wheels on Gravel. collection of essays. (London: John Lane, 1938). The Day is Gone. autobiography. (New York: Dutton, 1948).

Biographical Sources:
Byington, H. M. The sum of perishable things : an Ahnentafels : the ancestors of Homer Morrison Byington III (Foster, R.I. : H.M. Byington, 2010).
Graves, Richard Perceval. The Brothers Powys (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983).
Gregory, Alyse. The Cry of a Gull: Journals, 1923-1948, with a preface by Evelyn Hardy (Somerset: The Ark Press, 1973).
Gregory, Alyse. The Day is Gone (New York: Dutton, 1948).
Hopkins, Kenneth. The Powys Brothers (London: Phoenix House, 1967).
Powys, Llewelyn. So Wild a Thing: Letters to Gamel Woolsey, edited as a narrative by Malcolm Elwin (Somerset: The Ark Press, 1973).
Powys, Llewelyn. The Verdict of Bridlegoose (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1926).
Sims, George. "Alyse Gregory (Mrs. Llewelyn Powys)," Antiquarian Book Monthly Review (November, 1987).

THE POWYS FAMILY

Llewelyn Powys was one of eleven children of Mary Cowper Powys (1840-1914) and Charles Powys (1843-1923), vicar of Montacute, Somerset. Several of Llewelyn's siblings were writers, most notably including novelists John Cowper Powys and Theodore Francis Powys. The following list includes all of the Powys siblings and many of their spouses and children represented in the Alyse Gregory Papers.

John Cowper ("Jack") (1872-1963), author
------married Margaret Alice Lyon (d. 1947)
------son Littleton Alfred (1902-1953)
------companion Phyllis Playter (d. 1982)

Littleton Charles ("Tom") (1874-1955), schoolmaster
------married Mabel (d. 1942)
------married Elizabeth Myers, author (1912-1947)

Theodore Francis (1875-1953), author
------married Violet Dodds (d. 1966)
------son Charles ("Dicky") (1906-1931)
------son Francis (b. 1909)
------------married Sally ("Minnie")
------daughter Theodora Gay ("Susan") (b. 1932)

Gertrude Mary (1877-1952), painter

Eleanor ("Nelly") (1879-1893)

Albert Reginald ("Bertie") (1882-1936), architect
------married Dorothy
------daughter Isobel Powys Marks
------married Faith Oliver

Marian ("May") (1882-1972), lacemaker
------son Peter Grey (b. 1922)
------------married Tyler

Llewelyn ("Lulu") (1884-1939), author
------married Alyse Gregory (1884-1967)

Philippa ("Katie") (1886-1962), author

William ("Willie") (1888-1978), rancher in Kenya
------married Elizabeth
------son Gilfrid
------son Charles

Lucy (b. 1890)
------married Hounsell Penny
------daughter Mary (d. 1980), author
------------married Gerard Casey

Processing Information

The Alyse Gregory Papers include materials formerly classed in ZA Bourne and ZA Millay; a diary transcript formerly classed as YCAL MSS FILE 3; and letters to Gregory formerly in the Arthur Davison Ficke Papers. Correspondence between Gregory and Derrick Leon, Marie Nordlinger, and George Painter, concerning Marcel Proust, was transferred from the General Collection Manuscript Miscellany and General Collection uncataloged files.

Title
Guide to the Alyse Gregory Papers
Author
by Karen M. Spicher
Date
June 2001
Description rules
Beinecke Manuscript Unit Archival Processing Manual
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.

Part of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Repository

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