Add MS 88998/2/65

39 communication from Anne Stevenson.

• (1). Durham, 14 December 1990. To Lee Harwood 'via Ric Caddel'. Invitation (1 sheet) to submit poems for the Poetry Book Society Anthology for 1991, edited this year by Stevenson. At the foot of the page, Harwood has listed various poems he is considering submitting.
• (2). Durham, 1 March 1991. Autograph letter (1 sheet). 'Ric Caddel told me of Paul Evans's death in a climbing accident [....] But you must keep writing and going on....' Stevens is keen to include Harwood in the anthology.
• (3). Durham, 9 March 1991. Typed letter (1 sheet). 'I'm excited by your poems. Would take 'The Rowan Tree' but I somehow think it's two poems intertwined [....] The poem I should like to publish is 'Air Clamps', you at your abstract, metaphysical best.'
• (4). Hutchinson, London, 30 May 1991. Typed letter (1 sheet) from publishing house enclosing a proof of 'Air Clamps' (1 sheet).
• (5). Invitation card from the Poetry Book Society, London. Friday 18 October [1991], Town Hall Cheltenham, 'to celebrate the publication of The Poetry Book Society Anthology'.
• (6). Durham, [December 1991?]. Bespoke Christmas card from Anne and Peter [Lucas], with a poem by Stevenson ('Snow') on the front of the card. 'Come and see us in North Wales' (at their cottage in Llanbedr).
• (7). As from Grantchester, 2 July 1992. Typed letter (1 sheet) enclosing typed poem 'After you left' (1 sheet). 'I have been reading quantities of Wallace Stevens of late; I find him inspiring; don't think I understood him when I was younger. I'm feeling more and more American as I get older (& the more I read of recent British poetry, I'm afraid).' Stevenson comments on 'The Artful' (Harwood, Collected Poems, p. 398, dedicated to her). In Stevenson's letter, the poem is referred to by the draft title 'Art and the Artful Dodger'.
• (8). Grantchester, 7 August 1992. Typed letter (1 sheet) enclosing three draft poems (3 sheets) by Harwood: 'On the Ledge', 'For Paul /Coming Out of Winter', and 'In the Mountains'. Each poem annotated by Stevenson. 'Your poem "Cwm Uchaf" seems so fine (as also, "Summer 1990") that I'd like to voice a few misgivings about the poems for Paul. There's always a danger of bathos when one says what one deeply means.'
• (9). [Grantchester, ?August 1992]. Bookmark (Cambridge) with undated autograph message on the verso, referring to Harwood visiting 'Pwllymarch' cottage, Llanbedr.
• (10). Llanbedr, 7-8 January 1993. Autograph card, in anticipation of Harwood visiting.
• (11). Llanbedr, 25 February 1993. Autograph letter (1 sheet).
• (12). Llanbedr, 17 June 1993. Typed letter (1 sheet). Visiting arrangements. 'I look forward very much to seeing what you have written for Contemporary Authors'.
• (13). [Llanbedr], 19 June 1993. Autograph postcard. 'I was in such a state about the new fence(!) that I overlooked the beautiful poem you dedicated to me [....] "The Artful" is a masterpiece now, and I'm more than pleased to, in a sense, possess it ... along with all those who will enjoy it with me.'
• (14). Llanbedr, 6 September 1993. Autograph postcard. Harwood visiting later in September.
• (15). [Llanbedr], 10 September 1993. Autograph postcard. 'I've told the cat to expect you.'
• (16). Grantchester, 3 November 1993. Autograph letter written on the verso of a flyer for the launch of Stevenson, Four and a Half Dancing Men, and an invitation card for a Poetry Society Reception (Wilfred Owen Centenary, 9 November) at which Stevenson will read from Owen's letters.
• (17). [Grantchester], 26 November 1993. Christmas card and message.
• (18). [Llanbedr], 22 December 1993 (postmark). Christmas card and message, with envelope.
• (19). Grantchester, 28 February 1994. Autograph letter (1 sheet). Refers to Harwood and Harry Guest staying at Llanbedr.
• (20). Grantchester, 13 March 1994. Autograph letter (1 sheet).
• (21). Grantchester, 19 March 1994. Autograph letter (1 sheet). Comments on 'Days and nights: accidental sightings' (Collected Poems, pp. 419-23). 'As a "bundle" they have a powerful effect - something like the music of Webern or Schönberg, motifs stated once and left hanging in the night.'
• (22). [Llanbedr], 7 April 1994. Autograph postcard.
• (23). Llanbedr, 4 June 1994. Autograph letter (1 sheet), with envelope (annotated). Having read Harwood's autobiographical essay in draft ('your essay needs no revision at all - I love its spontaneity and candour'). 'As you know, my American academic background hardly prepared me for the 'sixties "revolution" - what a snob I was in those days! While I was studying with Donald Hall at Michigan, you were in Paris whooping it up with John Ashbery. I don't even know today the poems of Tristan Tzara.' Harwood's envelope annotation records that he sent his book of translation in return.
• (24). Llanbedr, 8 July 1994. Autograph letter (2 sheets). 'The translations and the philosophy that inspired Tzara also helps me to understand your work better than I have in the past.'
• (25). Grantchester, 11 September 1994. Autograph letter (2 sheets), with envelope.
• (26). Grantchester, 6 November 1994. Autograph letter (1 sheet). 'Peter [Lucas] will give you full details of Darwin's adventures in the Harlech Dome when he writes.'
• (27). [Llanbedr], 2 December [1994]. Autograph letter (1 sheet), with envelope.
• (28). Grantchester, 15 December 1994. Folding card (Whistler).
• (29). Grantchester, 28 January 1995. Autograph postcard. 'Distressed to learn from a little mouse that you are not striding over Snowdon, but laid up, suffering in London.'
• (30). Grantchester, 7 February 1995. Autograph letter (1 sheet), with envelope.
• (31). [Llanbedr], 10 March 1995. Autograph postcard.
• (32). [Llanbedr], 19 April 1995. Typed letter (1 sheet) enclosing two colour photographs of Stevenson's newly-restored barn. 'I enjoyed your collection of stern maxims, remembering how we used to consult the I Ching and Pound as if they were sacred texts. I was surprised to find Mao Tse-Tung's "Advice" among the gems. Did you mean it ironically at the time? I suppose not [....]'
• (33). Llanbedr, 21 May 1995. Typed letter (1 sheet). 'Have you read Carlo Levi's Christ Stopped at Eboli? [....] It's a classic, one of the few books I'd keep if I only had one shelf to fill.'
• (34). Grantchester, 6 June 1995. Autograph letter (1 sheet). Comments on 'The Songs of Those Who Are On The Sea of Glass' (Collected Poems, pp. 446-9).
• (35). [Llanbedr], 8 September 1995. Autograph postcard. 'Am back writing on Elizabeth Bishop again, and collecting my older poems. Not much new!'
• (36). [Llanbedr], 18 September 1995. Autograph letter (1 sheet).
• (37). Llanbedr, 1 November 1995. Typed letter (2 sheets), commenting on Elizabeth Bishop. 'You know, until you brought it to my attention, I was not aware that Elizabeth had written so cruelly of my book, nor that Robert Giroux, editor of One Art, had published that otherwise sad and undistinguished letter to Anny Baumann. I must say I was shocked to read it!' (See Giroux, One Art: Selected Letters of Elizabeth Bishop (1994), pp. 600-1, Bishop to Baumann, 5 December 1975.)
• (38). [Llanbedr], 9 November 1995. Typed letter (1 sheet). Further remarks on Bishop, finishing a lecture 'to be given on 28 November in Loughboro; after which I have to give a lecture on Plath in Oxford. And after that? No more prose. Though I will write a very short introduction to Bishop, correcting some of the "mistakes" in my first book, and of course, bringing it up to date.'
• (39). Grantchester, 8 December 1995. Autograph letter (1 sheet). 'I'm collecting my essays, to come out at about the same time as the poems. Once those books are out of the way, I'll return to EB and my own new poems!'