LETTER: Taylor - Williams Correspondence.
Elizabeth Taylor to her editor, 1971-1975
A series of four letters from Elizabeth Taylor to her editor Alan Williams between 1971 and 1975, with two of his carbon replies, and a photocopy of Taylor’s 1975 newspaper obituary.
As follows:
Taylor, Elizabeth. Autographed letter signed “ Elizabeth” to “Alan,” Grove’s Barn, Penn, Buckinghamshire, August 14, 1971; two stapled leaves of “Grove’s Barn” stationery; three pages total; creased where folded for mailing; tape-mended unobstructive tears on both leaves at center fold; with Williams’ penciled notes: “MAB/THG/ADW (xerox to THG 8/25)”
Taylor asks Williams for advice on shaping her short story collection. She writes, “I really have no idea…where one should put the stronger ones, & so on…so often I never get along to finishing the end of a book…I had thought The Devastating Boys should be the title-story, so perhaps it should not be left till the end.” Later, she remarks that she would like Williams to “re-order the stories, because you have more experience, and then I could consult Norah [Smallwood, Taylor’s publisher] when she returns.” She thanks Williams for the “advertisements, and the promise of the reviews” in his upcoming letters. She ends with a post-script: “A letter from America tells me that I have written eleven novels. I’ve counted them, & it is so. It is like finding oneself a year older than one thought.”
(together with):
Williams, Alan. Typed letter carbon to Taylor, September 7, 1971; one yellow leaf, stapled to letter above.
Williams sends Taylor a “notice from the daily Times whicm [sic] seems to me remarkable for its obtuseness, and I didn’t hurry to send it. It seems to have done little damage, because sales continue cheerfully and are now at 9944” [review not present]. Responding to Taylor’s opinions of titling and ordering her collection, he writes, “I like “The Devastating Boys” very much as a title, and would thus vote to put that first in the book, with ‘The Excursion”’at the end.” He ends, “I hope this finds you both refreshed from your Gallic sojourn.”
(together with):
Taylor, Elizabeth. Autographed letter signed “With love, Elizabeth” to “Alan,” Grove’s Barn, Penn, Buckinghamshire, May 13, 1972; one stapled leaf, 2 pages of blue Par Avion Aerogramme “By Air Mail” stationery; black ink on both sides; small closed tears at folds.
Taylor thanks Williams for sending her printed reviews of her work and saying of her reviewers, “I have a knack for putting people’s backs up…I have never been parodied in my life, but it would make me feel I had got somewhere.” On the state of her work, she writes, “I wish that I could tell you that I am well into a novel, but I am in that awful time of going vaguely about, waiting for something to hit me.” She closes by telling Williams of her forthcoming travel plans to Brittany, leaving “on the day my book comes out here,” and regretting that she “shall miss Mrs. Palfrey as a serial on the wireless.
(together with):
Williams, Alan. Typed letter carbon to Taylor, June 1, 1972; one yellow leaf, stapled to letter above.
Williams sends Taylor a review of her work [review not present] from “last week’s daily Times, in the bilious tradition we’ve previously noted.” In referencing the review, he writes, “I simply cannot see “The Devastating Boys” itself or the other stories he cites as inconclusive or frozen, but there it is.”
(together with):
Taylor, Elizabeth. Autographed letter signed “Yours, Elizabeth” to “Alan,” October 8, 1975; one leaf of “Grove’s Barn” stationery; 2 pages; creased where folded from mailing.
Taylor encloses “the missing p. 92,” and addresses edits Williams suggested she make on her in-process novel (Blaming, which would be published posthumously in 1976 following Taylor’s death in November 1975). She writes: “My husband & I have been through the pages you found slightly confusing – read & re-read, but can’t quite understand what you mean…I’m inclined to agree with you about Martha’s character as a writer; but I can’t do any drastic revision now, as the English proofs have been corrected and gone off.” She responds to a suggestion by Williams to take certain colloquialisms out of the novel, writing, “Going Dutch at the Chinese being Irish is rather too English a remark, so will you leave out about the Irish?” and concludes, “If there are any other difficulties please let me know.”
(together with):
Taylor, Elizabeth. Autographed letter signed “Yours, Elizabeth” to “Alan,” October 24, 1975; one leaf of “Grove’s Barn” stationery; writing in black on recto only; creased where folded from mailing; paperclip creasing on upper left.
Taylor makes final edits to Blaming, less than a month before her death. On revisions she makes to the book’s pagination, she writes, “I’m sorry if this seems wrong, but can’t see any way of changing it at this stage.” On the length of the letter (a half-page, noticeably shoreter than her others), she confides, “short letter, this – for your sake and mine. Writing no longer comes easily to me, and I am in bed. I was supposed to be going to James Kingsley’s, but not a hope.” She ends, “John sends his good wishes, and I.”
(together with):
“Elizabeth Taylor: A novelist of subtlety.”
One leaf; photocopied from newsprint; with five pencil annotations; paperclip impression; incomplete photocopy cutting off bottom paragraph.
Photocopy of the two-column obituary from The Times in memoriam of Taylor’s life.
Perhaps best “known for not being known,” English novelist and short story writer Elizabeth Taylor (1912-1975) was the author of twelve novels, four short story collections, and one children’s book. Critically praised, she was called “a writer of considerable elegance,” and commonly drew comparisons to Jane Austen for her perception of middle class and the “nuances of everyday life and situations” (The Times, 1975). Taylor was “fascinated and deeply comforted by the daily routine of domestic life, the details of which she gave minute attention in her fiction, […which] allowed for her regular and admirable output—although she began to publish only when she was 34.” In the 1980s, the U.K. publisher Virago rereleased “all of Taylor’s novels and short-story collections, bound in lovely floral covers and sporting introductions by celebrated British writers of the era, including her friend and champion Elizabeth Jane Howard, who hailed her as one of the 20th century’s most unfairly underread and underappreciated authors” (Schwartz, Benjamin. “The Other Elizabeth Taylor.” The Atlantic, September 2007).
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