Search FNL grants since 1931

126 letters of the artist, engraver and poet David Jones to his friend Valerie Wynne-Williams (née Price). When they first met in 1958 Jones was in his early sixties and Price nearly forty years his junior. Whilst their relationship was entirely platonic, Jones was undoubtedly besotted with Valerie and the letters are certainly, in part, love letters to her.

A small group of letters of the artist, engraver and poet David Jones (1895-1974) to his friend Morag Owen (née McLennan), together with some related papers. In his later years living in Harrow, Jones was increasingly supported by a large circle of friends, one of whom was Morag Owen, a young art student at the time of their first meeting in 1948. Once Morag married and moved away, she became one of the many friends with whom Jones corresponded frequently and at length.

The letters, the later ones written in his distinctive combination of black, red and green ink with notes and postscripts added at angles in the margins, cover a variety of topics, although a recurring theme is his declining health.

A small, yet important group of literary papers relating to the poet, writer and soldier Edward Thomas (1878-1917). The items acquired were all once in the possession of Thomas’s friend, the Gloucester lawyer and bibliophile Jack Haines (1875-1960). The most significant and interesting item is a school exercise book once used by Myfanwy, Thomas’s daughter, which was reused by him to write his poetry. Although only eight leaves remain in the book, they contain multiple drafts, in his own hand, of two of his very earliest poems, ‘The Mountain Chapel’ and ‘Birds’ Nests’. They are dated 17 and 18 December respectively, only a few weeks after Thomas began writing poetry in earnest.

Formerly displayed in the bar of a public house in the Cotswolds, this parchment pedigree of a prominent Welsh Elizabethan merchant was purchased privately by the National Library of Wales in March 2017, with the aid of a grant of £7,500 fro

An important letter from poet and artist David Jones (1895-1974), author of In Parenthesis, to novelist Anthony Powell. The letter was bought for the National Library of Wales with the aid of a grant of £650 from the Friends of the National Libraries.

The letter, which is dated 10-11 July 1967, discusses Welsh history and genealogy, topics on which these two men of letters - both of Welsh descent - shared a common interest. The National Library of Wales’ extensive David Jones Archive - the most complete archive of the artist-poet’s work in existence - contains two associated letters from Powell to Jones, dated 8 and 16 July 1967 respectively (NLW, David Jones Papers, CT2/2). It also contains a draft of a letter from Jones to Powell, dated 15 July 1967, but in fact responding to Powell’s letter of 16 July (NLW, David Jones Papers, CF1/12, f. 12).

‘The Laws of Hywel Dda’ is a long-established descriptive term for native Welsh legal texts which were traditionally regarded as having been codified in the 10th century by King Hywel ‘the Good’ of Deheubarth, effectively ruler of all Wales under the overlordship of Athelstan of England.

Gwyneth Lewis is the first National Poet of Wales. This material includes her earliest poems and writings and documents her development as a writer, up until the mid 1980s. The archive also contains material relating to Sunbathing in the Rain and correspondence over a long period. 

An imperfect copy of an unidentified early 16th cent. edition of the Decretales of Gregory IX. Sixteen formerly blank leaves at the beginning of the volume contain Welsh poetry added by 'Lewis Johnes', including an early cywydd attributed to Siôn Tudur (c.1522-1602)

A magnificent series of medieval charters and deeds, including a series of 35 issued by native Welsh princes, many still retaining their equestrian seals. There are the detailed accounts of Sir Richard Wynn, treasurer and receiver general of Henrietta Maria, queen of Charles I.

An album measuring 11.1 x 8.8cm containing 42 images of individuals and groups, birds and flowers. At least 17 can be attributed to Mary Dillwyn and others are probably by other members of this pioneering family of photographers. Illustrated at p.24 of AR