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Typed letter from Kate O’Brien, Croyle, Cullompton, Devon to Anne O’Mara. Kate and Elizabeth are still anxiously awaiting the Irish maid, although the old cook has had a change of heart and returned to her job. Kate’s book [The Last of Summer] is selling exceptionally well, and the reviews have been very favourable.

Typed letter from Kate O’Brien, 10 Buckingham Street, Strand, London WC2 to Anne O’Mara. Kate discusses The Last of Summer, which has suffered from a series of commotions and sackings, but seems at last to be set to open in Liverpool on 24 April. She talks at some length about the difficulties of dramatizing the novel into a play as in Kate’s opinion everything that gives the book value or distinction belongs purely to the novel form. To reduce it to dialogue and action only hardens it into something vulgar and ordinary. She and John Perry have written about six different versions, and she doesn’t like any of them. She regrets having allowed the novel to be dramatized at all. Kate’s agents have compelled her to do some talks on books for the BBC, which she is dreading as she is no good at ‘speechifying.’

Typed letter from Kate O’Brien, 10 Buckingham Street, Strand, London WC2 to Anne O’Mara. Kate is looking forward to 7 June [the London premiere of The Last of Summer?], but with some anxiety. The play is currently in Southsea, where Kate is about to go as she wants to evaluate the various changes she has made and take notes for the London rehearsals.

Typed letter from Kate O’Brien, The Homestall, South Moreton, near Didcot, Berkshire to Anne O’Mara. Kate apologises for not having written since before Christmas, but she has been ill with gastric flu. Her doctor has urged her to go to Ireland for respite, but the novel she is currently writing [That Lady] requires a lot of documentation, and it is difficult to get permission to take or post books and papers into neutral territory. She has a lot of concentrated work to do first before she can go over in peace of mind.

Typed letter from Kate O’Brien, Silver Vale Hotel, Enniskerry, [county Wicklow] to [Anne O’Mara]. Kate encloses two limericks and thanks her sister for medication received. She notes that the play [That Lady] is progressing nicely.

Typed letter from Kate O’Brien, Silver Vale Hotel, Enniskerry, [county Wicklow] to Anne O’Mara. Kate has finished dramatizing the novel [That Lady] and has handed the manuscript to the typists. She feels she has done her best and hopes that Guthrie McClintic will be pleased with it.

Typed letter from Kate O’Brien, 23 Beekman Place, New York 22 to Anne O’Mara. Kate regrets that the preparations for her play [That Lady] have been postponed owing to Katharine Cornell’s illness. She discusses her brother Michael, who is living in New York, and her impressions of the city. She is amazed by the number and variety of shops in the city and doubts that with such an embarrassment of choice she would be able to buy as much as a pair of gloves.

Typed letter from Kate O’Brien, 11 Great James Street, Bloomsbury WC1 to Anne and Stephen O’Mara, thanking the couple for their loan of money and for their good wishes in the midst of an unpleasant affair. She regrets that she has no news of her play Distinguished Villa.

Typed letter from Kate O’Brien, 11 Great James Street, Bloomsbury WC1 to Anne and Stephen O’Mara. Kate encloses reviews of her play (now not present) and gives an account of the first night of Distinguished Villa in London. She mentions a new play she is working on, which is set in County Limerick and centred around the Limerick Horse Show and members of the family. She describes the play as entirely different from Distinguished Villa and without its sordidness.

Typed letter from Kate O’Brien, 11 Great James Street, Bloomsbury WC1 to Anne and Stephen O’Mara. Kate is seeking a loan of £25 to cover the solicitor’s expenses in arranging the decree nisi against her husband. She intends to pay it back before Easter at the latest.