Add MS 53772

WYSTAN HUGH AUDEN: notebook of poetry and prose; circa 1946-1965. Autograph. Closely written in ball-point and pencil, with many revised passages. For a detailed description of this notebook, see Stratford, Mod. Lit. MSS., no. 28. For reproductions of f. 40 see E. W. White, Stravinsky (1966), p. 145; of f. 63v see J. Lewis, Poetry in the Making (1967), pl. IV (and see p. 41); of f. 80 see An Exhibition of a book dedicated by Henry Moore to W. H. Auden . . ., British Museum Publications (1974), n.p.; and of ff. 99v, 100, see Stratford, op. cit., pls. 8, 9. Purchased from the Arts Council, 11 June 1966.

Paper; ff. iv+149. 260 x 200mm. Printed pagination from 1 to 300, but pages 295, 296 (between ff. 147, 148) excised. Notebook stamped on its spine 'RECORDS' and '2780 D-H', i.e. Hammermill Columnar Book No. 2780 (f. ii). Book-stamp (f. i) of 'SIMON STATIONERY/890 – 3rd AVE. N. Y. C.'

Contents:

1. ff. 1-38. Various short prose-works published in 1947 and 1948, mainly in periodical form; circa 1947. Drafts.

2. ff. 38v-41. Part of the libretto of Act I, scene 2, of Stravinsky's opera 'The Rake's Progress' (1951); circa 20 Nov. 1947-16 Jan. 1948. Drafts.

3. ff. 41v-61. Miscellaneous notes and drafts partly used for prose pieces, etc., later collected in The Dyer's Hand (1962); aft. 1948 - circa 1957.

4. ff. 1-148v passim. Miscellaneous notes and drafts of poems mainly pub-lished in parts I and II of About the House (1966); circa 1962-1965. Also included are drafts of an incomplete and unpublished poem (ff. 91, 74, 73v); n.d.

5. ff. 85v-138v passim. Narration, etc., for the National Film Board of Canada documentary 'Runner' (1962), later collected in City Without Walls (1969); circa 1962. Drafts.