Letters from Walter de la Mare to Charles Jasper Sisson and Rosemary Sisson
Fonds — Box: CLX-A-480
Identifier: Coll-2101
Content Description
This collection consists of three typed letters from Walter de la Mare to academic and author Charles Jasper Sisson (1885-1966), dated 6, 23, and 27 November 1933, and two typed letters to Sisson's nine-year-old daughter Rosemary Anne Sisson (1923-2017), a future novelist and television dramatist, dated 24 August and 27 September 1933.
In his letters to Rosemary, de la Mare is mostly talking about his poems and answering her comments and stories about her own occupations; and in his letters to her father, he expresses that he is pleased to have his "parental blessing" on his "correspondence with Rosemary". He adds: "I just love having her letters, but when I begin to try to answer them I feel something like a hippopotamus picking daisies".
Dates
- 24 August - 27 November 1933
Creator
Language of Materials
English
Condition Description
Ink is fainter on the letters to Rosemary Sisson than to Charles Jasper Sesson. The top right-hand corner of all leaves shows damage from rusting paper-clips.
Conditions Governing Access
Open. Please contact the repository in advance.
Biographical / Historical
The poet, novelist, and anthologist Walter De La Mare was born in Charleton, Kent, on 25 April 1873. He was educated at St. Paul's Cathedral Choristers' School in London. From 1890 until 1908, De La Mare worked for the Anglo-American Oil Company in London. However, after the appearance in 1902 of his Songs of childhood, under the pseudonym of Walter Ramal, he spent more and more time writing and his first novel Henry Brocken was published in 1904. A large output of poems, stories, novels, books for children and anthologies continued throughout the rest of his life. His production includes Poems (1906), The return (1910), The listeners (1912), Peacock pie (1913), Memoirs of a midget (1921), Come hither (1923), Behold, this dreamer (1939), The Burning Glass (1945), The Traveller (1946), Inward Companion (1950), and O Lovely England (1953). He was made Companion of Honour in 1948, and received the Order of Merit in 1953. Walter De La Mare died in Twickenham on 22 June 1956. He was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral.
Charles Sisson (1885-1966) was a British academic and author. From 1928 until 1951 he was Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at University College London. His daughter Rosemary Sisson was an English television dramatist and novelist. She contributed to scripts for Upstairs Downstairs, The Duchess of Duke Street and The Six Wives of Henry VIII.
Extent
5 letters : 5 leaves
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased in June 2022. Accession no. SC-Acc-2023-0084.
Condition Description
Ink is fainter on the letters to Rosemary Sisson than to Charles Jasper Sesson. The top right-hand corner of all leaves shows damage from rusting paper-clips.
Processing Information
Catalogued by Aline Brodin and Paul Barnaby in September 2023, using information provided by the seller.
Creator
- Title
- Letters from Walter de la Mare to Charles Jasper Sisson and Rosemary Sisson, 24 August - 27 November 1933
- Author
- Aline Brodin
- Date
- September 2023
- Description rules
- Isad(G)2
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections Repository
Contact:
Centre for Research Collections
University of Edinburgh Main Library
George Square
Edinburgh EH8 9LJ Scotland
+44(0)131 650 8379
heritagecollections@ed.ac.uk
Centre for Research Collections
University of Edinburgh Main Library
George Square
Edinburgh EH8 9LJ Scotland
+44(0)131 650 8379
heritagecollections@ed.ac.uk