Add MS 83153

Eleanor Farjeon Papers. Vol. lxxvii (ff. 99). Material to be included in Book Four of the Memoirs, provisionally titled ‘Mortal Life: Immortal death’; circa 1940-[circa 1960] . Mostly typewritten. Book Four was intended to be a shorter work, a ‘summing up of old Age and what I may have distilled out of my three-quarters of a century’, focusing especially on Eleanor Farjeon’s conversion to Catholicism in 1951. Material relating to Elizabeth Myers and Walter de la Mare, placed with Book Three, was also considered for Book Four, and is listed among its contents.

1. ff. 1-4. [italics]Autograph[/italics] list of contents for Book Four, with a list of chapters for Book Two (f. 2v); [[italics]circa[/italics] 1960] and folder with notes on material to include (ff. 3-4).

2. ff. 5-30. Two drafts, one with [italics]autograph[/italics] revisions, of ‘Fundamental Values’, originally written for the author Olaf Stapledon, and intended as the Preface of Book Four; [italics]circa[/italics] 1940.

3. ff. 31-36. [italics]Incomplete autograph[/italics] draft describing Eleanor Farjeon’s spiritual education; [[italics]circa[/italics] 1960].

4. ff. 37-39. Partly [italics]autograph[/italics] notes on James Roose-Evans and the Hampstead Theatre Club; [[italics]circa[/italics] 1960].

5. ff. 40-55. Draft and draft page with [italics]autograph[/italics] revisions of ‘The Latter Years’, intended as the penultimate chapter of Book Four; [[italics]circa[/italics] 1957]. Published in [italics]The Book of Leisure[/italics], ed. John Pudney (1957).

6. ff. 56-99. Miscellaneous writings, mostly on a religious theme, not listed in the contents (ff. 1-2) but placed with material for the Memoirs; July 1951, n.d. Includes three drafts, one with [italics]autograph[/italics] revisions, of ‘Statement of Beliefs’ (ff. 56-84), one draft of ‘The Core’ (ff. 85-97) and [italics]incomplete autograph[/italics] draft of a passage on ‘Acceptance’ and ‘Sorrow’ (ff. 98-99).