Showing 33661 results

Typed letter from Kate O’Brien, Croyle, Cullompton, Devon to May O’Brien. Kate is staying with the Dashwoods [Paul Dashwood and his wife Monica, the English author who wrote under the pseudonym E. M. Delafield], who keep urging her to stay on. She keeps yielding from week to week, because she finds the freedom to do nothing else but think about her novel [The Last of Summer] very useful.

Typed letter from Kate O’Brien, 10 Buckingham Street, Adelphi, London WC2 to May O’Brien. The letter is mostly concerned with The Last of Summer, the rehearsals of which have hit a crisis as Jill Furse, who was playing Angèle, has discovered she is pregnant. As a consequence, rehearsals are held up until a replacement for her is found, and the start of the provincial tour has been postponed until 17 April.

Typed letter from Kate O’Brien, Minerva Club, 28a Brunswick Square, London WC1 to May O’Brien. Kate has taken refuge at the Minerva Club while searching for new lodgings. She thanks May for her Christmas kindnesses and for the Mary Lavin book and mentions her unfavourable review of it. She outlines her activities during the Christmas holiday, which involved a brief stay with the O’Neills, supper with Fay Compton and lunch with Paul Dashwood and Rosamund. She is going back to the Spectator in about a week with increased salary, which pleases her. The publishers are delighted with her book [That Lady], and want to allocate as much paper as possible, which means having to wait for an increased ration in the spring before it is published.

Typed letter from Kate O’Brien, 116 Clifford’s Inn, Fetter Lane, [London] EC4 to May O’Brien. The letter is written following Kate’s return from Ireland on 16 November. She apologises for the long delay in writing but her play [That Lady] is keeping her busy. Katharine Cornell is on her way from America, and Kate and Guthrie [McClintic] will have to decide how best to cut the play. Their present plan is for the two of them to work on it in Ireland and to have the final script ready for Christmas so that rehearsals can start in January. She outlines the type of accommodation she would need in Dublin and expects to be over between 12 and 14 December.

Typed letter from Kate O’Brien, End Farm to May O’Brien. Kate has decided to take a cottage and make it habitable to write another novel [The Last of Summer] for Heinemann. She thanks May for her kind offer to pay Traies’ storage bill, which would enable her to ask him for an estimate to have her furniture removed from London to her cottage. She regrets that were it not for the arrears of income tax from better days, she would now be able to clear her debts to relatives instead of remaining in acute penury. She mentions her novel [The Land of Spices], which is in its second last chapter and gives news of Clare remains calm and bright in spite of all she and other Londoners are having to put up with at present.

Typed letter from Kate O’Brien, Harcourt Cottage, North Leigh, Witney, Oxon to May O’Brien. Kate thanks May for her present of chocolates and wishes her a happy birthday.

Typed letter from Kate O’Brien, Harcourt Cottage to May O’Brien. Kate encloses five shillings and asks May to get a soft animal toy to give to baby John [eldest son of her brother Gerard O’Brien] on Christmas morning.

Typed letter from Kate O’Brien, Harcourt Cottage, North Leigh, Witney, Oxon to May O’Brien. Kate recounts the story of her intended journey to Ireland, which was cut short at the airport as she had inadvertently broken a new regulation whereby British-born women married to friendly aliens not accounted full allies are required to register with the police and hold a police registration book. Kate confesses that the problem was caused in the first instance by her having been too lazy to get back her British nationality, which she could have done at any time by application to the Home Office and which she is doing now.

Typed letter from Kate O’Brien, Croyle, Cullompton, Devon to May O’Brien. Kate intends to spend some time in London and Oxford. Her diaries book [English Diaries and Journals] comes out on 15 November, and May should receive her advance copy any day now. Kate has reviewed Maura Laverty’s new novel [Touched by a Thorn] and confesses that she did not like it. She has agreed to dramatise The Last of Summer in collaboration with John Perry, albeit rather against her will.

Typed letter from Kate O’Brien, Harcourt Cottage, North Leigh, Witney, Oxon to May O’Brien. Kate thanks May for the gift of a pound of butter. She is in the process of having her cottage painted and decorated by Mary O’Neill. She is looking forward to seeing Clare and has made arrangements for her at a hotel in Burford. She is sorry about Peter, Ruth and Stephie, whose flat in Bloomsbury was destroyed by a bomb.