RodgersBoyd001To BoydRodgers Estate1943 May 14thLinen Hall LibrarySaturday, April 2, 2016TIFFRodgersBoyd001LetterEngland, Anthology, LoughallEnglishhttps://www.niliteraryarchive.com/content/rodgersboyd001Linen Hall LibraryLinen Hall LibraryAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SAhttps://www.niliteraryarchive.com/sites/default/files/RodgersBoyd001.jpg44 Wellington Square, Oxford. 14th May 1943
Dear Boyd, I am at present in England and will be here for some time. I got your letter only to-day so you will understand the delay in answering it. At the moment I haven't anything new that would suit the proposed anthology. But you may certainly reprint SONG Incidentally there is a second part to this poem which has not been published yet. It's in a different vein, and quite good though perhaps emotionally you mightn't like it just so well. If you would care to have it also for the anthology you could write to my brother-in-law Wilfred Robinson at The Manse, Loughgall. Tell him he will find a copy of it, entitled SONG in a used envelope on the bookcase in my bedroom at home, or else lying about somewhere in the bedroom. Ask him to forward it to you. I hope the anthology is a success. With best wishes Yours Sincerely W.R.Rodgers
TextWR RodgersTuesday, July 26, 2016 - 10:471359RodgersBoyd002To BoydRodgers Estate1944 May 18thLinen Hall LibrarySaturday, April 2, 2016TIFFRodgersBoyd002LetterLagan, Poem, The BellEnglishhttps://www.niliteraryarchive.com/content/rodgersboyd002Linen Hall LibraryLinen Hall LibraryAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SAhttps://www.niliteraryarchive.com/sites/default/files/RodgersBoyd002.jpgThe Manse, Loughgall.
18-5-44
Dear Boyd, I'm sorry that I have nothing on hand that would suit “Lagan” II. My time has been taken up lately by extra-literary work. Though I have been working on one rather long poem which I have promised to give to Taylor the P. editor of 'The Bell'. I shall however have something for the next issue of 'Lagan'. Best wishes for the success of LAGAN II. Yours sincerely W.R.Rodgers.
TextWR RodgersTuesday, July 26, 2016 - 10:471360RodgersBoyd003To BoydRodgers Estate1947 Sep 8thLinen Hall LibrarySaturday, April 2, 2016TIFFRodgersBoyd003LetterCorrespondence, BelfastEnglishhttps://www.niliteraryarchive.com/content/rodgersboyd003Linen Hall LibraryLinen Hall LibraryAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SAhttps://www.niliteraryarchive.com/sites/default/files/RodgersBoyd003.jpgB.B.C. Rothwell House, New Cavendish St., W.1.
8/9/47
Dear John,
Many thanks to you and to Miss Jackson for the trouble you took in looking after my messages, correspondence etc in Belfast. It eased my way considerably. I’m sorry that in the last-minute rush of departure I didn’t see you personally. But perhaps I may see you late in October
Should any telephone charges etc come through for me, please send them to me and oblige.
Yours sincerely, W.R.Rodgers
53/60
John Boyd Esq. B.B.C. (Talks Dept) Broadcasting House, Ormeau Avenue
TextWR RodgersTuesday, July 26, 2016 - 10:471361RodgersBoyd004To BoydRodgers Estate1951 Nov 10thLinen Hall LibrarySaturday, April 2, 2016TIFFRodgersBoyd004LetterFrank O'Connor, DublinEnglishhttps://www.niliteraryarchive.com/content/rodgersboyd004Linen Hall LibraryLinen Hall LibraryAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SAhttps://www.niliteraryarchive.com/sites/default/files/RodgersBoyd004.jpgTHE BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION
Broadcasting House, London, W.1.
Telephone: Welbeck 4468 Cables: Broadcasts, London Inland Telegrams: Broadcasts, Telex, London
Features Dept. 10.11.51
Dear John, John Campbell Williams, of Oversees, tells me that he hasn't yet got a script of the talk I gave in Belfast: I wonder could one be sent to him. Many thanks to you for you help and kindness. I saw Frank O'Connor in Dublin and had a most pleasant chat with him. He was rather disturbed by having spent two days in the 'courts'; but the old hard core of self-possession and creative knowledge is in the man. I shouldn't be surprised if he moves from Dublin
TextWR RodgersTuesday, July 26, 2016 - 10:471362RodgersBoyd005To BoydRodgers Estate1951 Nov 10thLinen Hall LibrarySaturday, April 2, 2016TIFFRodgersBoyd005LetterJohn Gibson, LondonEnglishhttps://www.niliteraryarchive.com/content/rodgersboyd005Linen Hall LibraryLinen Hall LibraryAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SAhttps://www.niliteraryarchive.com/sites/default/files/RodgersBoyd005.jpgMy best wishes to you all. Yours Bertie.
P.S. Tell John Gibson to be sure to look me up when he's in London
TextWR RodgersTuesday, July 26, 2016 - 10:471363RodgersBoyd006To BoydRodgers Estate1958 Jan 3rdLinen Hall LibrarySaturday, April 2, 2016TIFFRodgersBoyd006LetterDown Education Committee, ScholarshipEnglishhttps://www.niliteraryarchive.com/content/rodgersboyd006Linen Hall LibraryLinen Hall LibraryAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SAhttps://www.niliteraryarchive.com/sites/default/files/RodgersBoyd006.jpgPurkiss Farmhouse, Barley, Sudbury, Suffolk.
3-1-58
John Boyd Esq., Broadcasting House, Belfast.
Dear John, Just a note to wish you a happy new year and to thank you again for your kindness during my last visit. Incidentally Down Education Committee has since decided to award Harden a Trinity Scholarship “subject to the approval of the Ministry of Education”. So far, so good. The Ministry may still be sticky, or at least torturous: if you should happen to know any of them I should be obliged if you would put in a word for me. By the way, I didn't mean to saddle you with Gerry's Belfast pieces which were very unfinished. So if there is nothing in the, which 'suits your book' don't hesitate to return them to me: but I should like to know what you thought of them. I hope Sam is well and mobile again. My warmest regards to Frances. Yours Bertie.
TextWR RodgersTuesday, July 26, 2016 - 10:471364RodgersBoyd007To BoydRodgers Estate1959 Jan 18thLinen Hall LibrarySaturday, April 2, 2016TIFFRodgersBoyd007LetterOrange Songs, SmithfieldEnglishhttps://www.niliteraryarchive.com/content/rodgersboyd007Linen Hall LibraryLinen Hall LibraryAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SAhttps://www.niliteraryarchive.com/sites/default/files/RodgersBoyd007.jpgPurkiss Farmhouse, Borley, Sudbury, Suffolk 18.1.59
John Boyd. Esq. B.B.C., Broadcasting House, Belfast
Dear John, Thank you for your note. I was sorry to seem so sticky about retaining the story but, for one thing. I had written it carefully and, for another, it would have been difficult at the last moment to change the script without spoiling it. Anyhow, all's well that ends well. I hope you found it a satisfactory broadcast. I wonder could you oblige me. I want one of those books of Orange songs with music that one used to be able to get in Smithfield, and I rather want to have it by next weekend. Do you think you could quickly get one and send it to me? And let me know the price? I'd be grateful. All good wishes Yours Bertie
TextWR RodgersTuesday, July 26, 2016 - 10:471365RodgersBoyd008To BoydRodgers Estate1962 Apr 6thLinen Hall LibrarySaturday, April 2, 2016TIFFRodgersBoyd008LetterChristopher Marsden, LondonEnglishhttps://www.niliteraryarchive.com/content/rodgersboyd008Linen Hall LibraryLinen Hall LibraryAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SAhttps://www.niliteraryarchive.com/sites/default/files/RodgersBoyd008.jpgRookery Farm, Ardleigh, Colchester, Essex
6.4.62
Dear John, I met Christopher Marsden this week in London and learned that he was unable to go to Ireland at this time; also that he had not written to you (probably too difficult) but he was most grateful for your kind offer. Thank you for the trouble you took in the matter. I hope you meet him at another time. All good wishes. Yours sincerely Bertie
John Boyd Esq. B.B.C. Talks, Broadcasting House, Ormeau Ave., Belfast.
TextWR RodgersTuesday, July 26, 2016 - 10:471366RodgersBoyd009To BoydRodgers Estate1962 Aug 29thLinen Hall LibrarySaturday, April 2, 2016TIFFRodgersBoyd009LetterMary O'MalleyEnglishhttps://www.niliteraryarchive.com/content/rodgersboyd009Linen Hall LibraryLinen Hall LibraryAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SAhttps://www.niliteraryarchive.com/sites/default/files/RodgersBoyd009.jpgRookery Farm, Ardleigh, Colchester, Essex.
29.8.62.
Dear John, I'm indeed grateful to you for the trouble you took, and don't hesitate to wipe the tape if necessary. The trouble still is – as you know – that the place upsets me: too many ghosts around, but in time I'll get over that. I enclose Patrick Boyle's 'metal man' which he asked me to deliver to Mary O'Malley. I have, incidentally, read the story, and I say to myself, confusing life with letters (and I still think it a necessary confusion) that this is what comes of spending 17 years in the Ulster Bank in Ardara. However, pass it on to Mary and give her my respects for the work she's doing. My thanks to you. Yours W.R.Rodgers
P.S. If I left a pipe in your office, let me know.
TextWR RodgersTuesday, July 26, 2016 - 10:471367RodgersBoyd010To BoydRodgers Estate1966 Jul 10thLinen Hall LibrarySaturday, April 2, 2016TIFFRodgersBoyd010LetterHumanist, The CockfightEnglishhttps://www.niliteraryarchive.com/content/rodgersboyd010Linen Hall LibraryLinen Hall LibraryAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SAhttps://www.niliteraryarchive.com/sites/default/files/RodgersBoyd010.jpg6 Victoria Road, Colchester, Essex.
10.7.66
John Boyd Esq., B.B.C. Broadcasting House, Ormeau Avenue, Belfast.
Dear John, I'm sorry I couldn't wait over the weekend, but BEA said it might otherwise be 5 days before I'd get a booking and I was lucky to get a cancelled one on the Saturday. Thank you for lending me Brian Friel's book of stories which I enclose. Lovely stories, and, as you said 'The Death of a Scientific Humanist' is the one. Only one thing worries me (and maybe it's my own fault) – the intricate gamut of care which the whole book shows. Will he – I'm sure he can – step outside for a moment and look at the house he has been living in, turn the paper-bag of love inside-out? The nice inexhaustible themes of Ultster – the Cockfight, The Visitor to the School – come up alarmingly good (alarmingly because he's good) as if a new and young Michael McLaverty had started to write again. 'Who will rid me frrm the body of this death?' I come back in my mind to Frank
TextWR RodgersTuesday, July 26, 2016 - 10:471368RodgersBoyd011To BoydRodgers Estate1966 Jul 10thLinen Hall LibrarySaturday, April 2, 2016TIFFRodgersBoyd011LetterCalifornia, BroadcastingEnglishhttps://www.niliteraryarchive.com/content/rodgersboyd011Linen Hall LibraryLinen Hall LibraryAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SAhttps://www.niliteraryarchive.com/sites/default/files/RodgersBoyd011.jpgO'Connor with his masterly inside-outsideness so beautifully controlled and united with precise abandon. It's unlikely I'll see you before I set off for California. Would you like me to send you an occasional report from an Ulsterman's point of view, of place and people, and the journey to the interior of me which it'll probably involve? For broadcasting. I can't thank you and Frances properly for all your care and kindness, so better leave it at that. Yours ever Bertie.
TextWR RodgersTuesday, July 26, 2016 - 10:471369RodgersBoyd012To BoydRodgers Estate19 JanLinen Hall LibrarySaturday, April 2, 2016TIFFRodgersBoyd012LetterCity CemetryEnglishhttps://www.niliteraryarchive.com/content/rodgersboyd012Linen Hall LibraryLinen Hall LibraryAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SAhttps://www.niliteraryarchive.com/sites/default/files/RodgersBoyd012.jpgThurs.
Dear John, I go back tonight. I'm most grateful for your helpfulness Let me know what you thought of (G.) Dillon's City Cemetery piece; I'd be obliged if you would send his stuff back to me. My thanks to Frances for her kindness, and would she let me know how much the phone call was
and oblige
Yours Bertie
TextWR RodgersTuesday, July 26, 2016 - 10:471370RodgersBoyd013To BoydRodgers Estate1972 Jul 25thLinen Hall LibrarySaturday, April 2, 2016TIFFRodgersBoyd013LetterClactonEnglishhttps://www.niliteraryarchive.com/content/rodgersboyd013Linen Hall LibraryLinen Hall LibraryAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SAhttps://www.niliteraryarchive.com/sites/default/files/RodgersBoyd013.jpg12 St Martin's Close London NW10HR
25.7.72
Dear John, What must you think of me never answering your kind letter in April? I had just come across a letter I wrote in reply from the convalescent house in Clacton. For some reason I never got it posted! I was still rather dazed form the effect of drugs and not at all clear what I was doing. I hated the place anyway and go out before I was due. From there I went to stay with a friend in a flat in London for a couple of weeks before returning to the responsibilities of my own menage in the middle of May. Since then I have been getting stronger all the time, but still have to be careful and rest when I get tired. I was very glad you were able to persuade Sean O'Faolain – it seems to be all straightened out now and I hear that publication date is fixed for Sept 28th. Peter Campbell has suggested to Stephen Heart that one of the programmes (possibly Joyce?) should be repeated on Radio 3 around that time, but of course, it's only a suggestion! I realised that the climate is not any better now for doing a programme on Bertie than it was in March – far worse, if anything. After the terrible events on Friday I rang Nini to see if they were all right, about to ask about Mercy as we heard there was a bomb in Botanic Avenue. Nini said they were O.K. and she thought Mercy was, but I will try to write to her now. Harden is still in hospital in Dublin after a miscarriage! And you yourself, how are you? I just don't know how any of you carry on in those conditions. Any chance of you coming over here soon? Did your play ever get put on at the Unity Theatre? I have just had a visit from Esher Wagner - you
TextWR RodgersTuesday, July 26, 2016 - 10:471371RodgersBoyd014To BoydRodgers Estate1972 Jul 25thLinen Hall LibrarySaturday, April 2, 2016TIFFRodgersBoyd014LetterPegasusEnglishhttps://www.niliteraryarchive.com/content/rodgersboyd014Linen Hall LibraryLinen Hall LibraryAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SAhttps://www.niliteraryarchive.com/sites/default/files/RodgersBoyd014.jpgRemember, our friend from Pitzer College who got Bertie over there – and she's now staying at 17 Doorly Park, Sligo and will be there for the Yeats Festival. She has been trying to persuade me to go over then, especially to be there on Aug 18th when Michael Longley will be speaking about Bertie and John Hewitt. But I'm afraid I don't feel up to travelling around this year. Except for a quick week with friends in Cornwall at the beginning of August, i'm just going to stay here and try and get myself and my work sorted out. Lucy is going to France with friends, so she'll be alright till September when she's starting at a Technical College in King's Cross, hopefully to do her 'A' Levels. I have been having quite a correspondence with Patric Stephens in Hillsborough. He sent me a poem of Bertie's 'Herod's Storm' which has been omitted by the OUP. It was published in the New Statesman in 1942, but I have never seen it before of heard Bertie mention it. Just at the moment I can't find the copies I made of it but will send you one as soon as I do. It's going to be published in a little poetry magazine called Pegasus (No2), edited by a friend of mine, Olga Gibb. Patric also pointed out a shamefully long list of misprints in the OUP edition. He has also sent it to the poetry editOr there, Carol Buckroyd, and she has promised to get them right in the next edition. Quite a number of them were already there in Europa and in Awake! It's very annoying, though some of them are really variants and it's hard to say now which version Bertie favoured. Did you see the review of the poems by James Simmons in The Honest Ulsterman? Pretty rough stuff. Oh well. I suppose some people must be allowed to dislike his work! Now I hope you will forgive my long silence; I really did think I had written to you in April! You must blame it on my state of health at the time. I feel quite normal again now. Much love from Marianne
TextWR RodgersTuesday, July 26, 2016 - 10:471372RodgersBoyd015To BoydRodgers Estate1973 Nov 12thLinen Hall LibrarySaturday, April 2, 2016TIFFRodgersBoyd015LetterJohn Hewitt, DublinEnglishhttps://www.niliteraryarchive.com/content/rodgersboyd015Linen Hall LibraryLinen Hall LibraryAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SAhttps://www.niliteraryarchive.com/sites/default/files/RodgersBoyd015.jpg12 St Martin's Close, London NW1OHR
12.11.73
Tel: 01.485.8752
Dear John, It was good to see you at the Hewitt's – it was altogether a very heart-warming evening, and I was very glad to have made the visit to Belfast at last. The only snag was that there was no opportunity to have a real talk with you, and this was one of the things I came for! All I could do was to ask you to think about the need for collecting material – letters, reminiscenses – of Bertie for the eventual biography. Now I really want to ask you how much I can count on your help with Bertie's papers. Although you are retired, it seems to me that you are as busy, if not more so, than you were before, and I am wondering if it is realistic to expect you to take an active part in sorting and collecting? I know I can't do it on my own, and that I will have to have help from Northern Ireland, but you, along with everyone else of Bertie's circle, probably still have to make money, and it is hardly fair to ask you to give up valuable free-lance time to work on something which, in the present situation, holds no guarantee of renumeration. As I said, I am not thinking of writing the actual biography myself, though, of course, I will contribute it. But we're none of us getting any younger, and I think it is important not to delay in getting the material together. Ideally, an author and publisher should be found at this point who would be willing to back the project and pay contributors. But as with the Irish Portraits, copyright fees can eventually be paid and also fees for helping with the editing. Not much of a carrot is it? I would be grateful if you can work out any business-like arrangement that would acceptable to you and make it possible for you to carry on the job as literary executor. If, however, it really us too heavy a burden, and you don't see any hope of devoting time to it within the foreseeable future, would it perhaps be better that you should say so now and that I should ask someone else to take over? Needless to say, I should be very sorry to lose your valuable help and support, but with so much work to be done, I feel I can't go on putting it off. I think I told you that I was going to take another 2-day-a-week job, but since coming home from Dublin I have decided to go completely free-lance, raking in as much translation and editing work as I can get. At the same time I will try to get started on sorting Bertie's papers into more accessible files – the first job being to find copies of the Ulster Journey scripts, so that the B.B.C. copies can be returned to Belfast (they asked me for them shortly after you
TextWR RodgersTuesday, July 26, 2016 - 10:471373RodgersBoyd016To BoydRodgers Estate1973 Nov 12thLinen Hall LibrarySaturday, April 2, 2016TIFFRodgersBoyd016LetterMichael LongleyEnglishhttps://www.niliteraryarchive.com/content/rodgersboyd016Linen Hall LibraryLinen Hall LibraryAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SAhttps://www.niliteraryarchive.com/sites/default/files/RodgersBoyd016.jpgRetired). I saw Michael Longley the night after the Hewitt's party, and told him of my efforts to get in touch with Gareth Brown of Cladagh Records, as he had shown a little interest in the tapes of the Irish Portraits. Longley thought he might get Arts Council money to help finance the venture, and I have now been told that Mr Brown will get in touch with me as soon as he has finished the jobs he is doing now. So that is fairly encouraging. I hope you will write to me soon, and that you won't be offended by what I have said in this letter. Best if all if we could meet soon again – any chance of your coming to London before Christmas? Best Wishes and Love from Marianne
TextWR RodgersTuesday, July 26, 2016 - 10:471374