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Raine, Kathleen : Raine/Watkins Letters: Correspondence between Kathleen Raine, Vernon Watkins, Gwen Watkins, and others

London: Kathleen Raine, 1952-1993.

Letters, postcards, greeting cards from British poet, scholar, and editor Kathleen Raine to poet Vernon Watkins, his wife Gwen Watkins, son Gareth, and Ruth Pryor, a Watkins scholar. 59 pieces in all. Kathleen Raine (1908 - 2003) began publishing in the 1930s, with her first book appearing in 1943. She published 12 volumes of poetry in her lifetime, a well-received autobiography, and many volumes of essays and criticism. Raine was a respected independent scholar of William Blake and W. B. Yeats. She also founded and edited Tenemos, a quarterly devoted to "the arts of the imagination," publishing articles on neo-platonism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and other spiritual topics. Vernon Watkins (1906-1967), Anglo-Welsh poet, translator, and painter, was a close friend of poet Dylan Thomas. Though never as well known as Thomas, interest in his poetry has been growing since his death. His lush, intricately sounded poems, often on mythical or spiritual themes, went against the major poetic tendencies during his lifetime; their strengths can now be seen and appreciated.Gwen Watkins, his widow, worked to preserve and increase the reputation of her husband's poetry. She later taught at Oxford, and wrote books about her husband's friendship with Dylan Thomas, and about her experiences as a codebreaker at Bletchley Park in World War II (where she met her husband). Gareth Vernon Watkins, one of Watkins' sons, became a philosophy professor. Ruth Pryor was a scholar who edited Watkins' poems after his death, wrote about their use of myth and symbolism, and wrote general literary criticism. The largest group of letters, totaling 34 pieces from 1968 to 1987 (11 undated pieces), was written by Raine to Gwen Watkins, the poet's widow. The first in the series sends condolences on the poet's death and affirms his importance as a poet. The other letters revolve around publishing Watkins' unpublished poems, writing and commissioning articles about his work, and generally keeping his writing available. Two of the letters are typed on Tenemos letterhead. Attached to these letters are copies in typescript of articles on Watkins that Raine planned to publish in Tenemos. Eight letters (1983 to 1993, one undated) are addressed to both Gwen Watkins and scholar Dr. Ruth Pryor, and mostly discuss the editing of Watkins' poems and various efforts to publish them and commission scholarly articles about them. Six letters (1977 to 1984; one undated) are addressed to Ruth Pryor alone. Pryor was working intensively on editing Watkins' poems, and on writing about the symbolism she saw in them. Six letters (1952 to 1967, one undated) are addressed to Vernon Watkins. Raine wrote to Watkins as a fellow poet and to express her admiration for his writing. She visited him once at his home in Wales, a visit alluded to in the letters, and wrote to him in Seattle shortly before his death. One letter (1971) from Gareth Watkins to Gwen Watkins, his mother. Letter tells about his studies and a recent short vacation. There are also four Christmas cards, addressed to Gwen and to Gwen and Ruth, all undated, all signed by Raine. All letters are in autograph except for some of the letters on Tenemos letterhead, which Raine generally typed and signed.

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