Letters to Walter de la Mare from Helen Thomas
29 manuscript letters from Helen Thomas to Walter de la Mare and two to Mrs [Elfrida] de la Mare, 1907-1945. One letter [c.1917] written 'c/o Mrs Farjeon', Billingshurst, refers to the death of Edward Thomas and de la Mare's article in 'the Westminster'. In the letter dated c.1925, Helen asks de la Mare to write the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry for Edward Thomas.
Dates
- Creation: 1907-1945
Extent
1 box
Language of Materials
- English
Preferred Citation
Oxford, Bodleian Libraries [followed by shelfmark and folio or page reference, e.g. MS. 16127].
Shelfmark:
MS. 16127
Collection ID (for staff)
CMD ID 16127
Abstract
31 manuscript letters from Helen Thomas (widow of the poet Edward Thomas) to Walter de la Mare, 1907-1945.
Biographical / Historical
Walter de la Mare (1873-1956), author and poet, spent the first eighteen years of his working life writing as a hobby alongside his job in the statistics department of an oil company. After the publications of poetry and his first prose book Henry Brocken in 1904, and receiving a growing income as a literature reviewer, de la Mare was able to become a full-time writer in 1908. His prolific output over the course of his lifetime included over a thousand poems and rhymes, and around one hundred short stories, for both children and adults.
Helen Thomas née Noble (1877-1967), autobiographer, married the poet Edward Thomas (1878-1917) in 1899 when she became pregnant with their first child. The couple had two more children before Thomas's untimely death on active service during the First World War, at Arras in 1917. Helen wrote several autobiographical accounts of their life together, including As it Was (1926) and World without End (1931).
Further details can be found in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased by the Bodleian Library.
- Title
- Catalogue of letters to Walter de la Mare from Helen Thomas
- Status
- Published
- Author
- Finding aid prepared by Tilly Guthrie
- Date
- 2019
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Bodleian Libraries Repository
Weston Library
Broad Street
Oxford OX1 3BG United Kingdom
specialcollections.enquiries@bodleian.ox.ac.uk