Contents

Collection Overview

Biographical Note

Scope and Contents of the Collection

Organization of the Collection

Search Terms

Mary Webb Papers, 1898-1926

Finding Aid

Finding aid prepared by Hannah M. Stott-Bumsted.

Encoding funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

2003

Biographical Note

Mary Webb was born in Leighton-under-the-Wrekin, Shropshire, England, on March 25, 1881 to George Edward and Sarah Alice Meredith. She was educated at home by her schoolmaster father, but spent two years in Southport attending a private school. Webb suffered from Graves's disease throughout her adult life, her most serious attack keeping her bedridden for several years at the age of twenty. She married Henry Webb in June 1912, and lived in Shropshire until 1921 when the couple moved to London. The Institut Français presented her with the Femina/Vie Heureuse prize for Precious Bane in 1926, acknowledging "the best imaginative work in prose or verse descriptive of English life by an author who has not gained sufficient recognition."

Her writings include the novels The Golden Arrow (London: Constable, 1916; New York: Dutton, 1935), Gone to Earth (London: Constable, 1917; New York: Dutton, 1917), The House in Dormer Forest (London: Hutchinson, 1920; New York: Doran, 1921), Seven for a Secret, A Love Story (London: Hutchinson, 1922; New York: Doran, 1923), Precious Bane (London: Cape, 1924; New York: Dutton, 1926), Armour Wherein He Trusted (London: Cape, 1929; New York: Dutton, 1929), a collection of essays entitled The Spring of Joy (London and Toronto: Dent/New York: Dutton, 1917; New York: Dutton, 1937), a poetry collection Fifty-one Poems Hitherto Unpublished in Book Form (London: Cape, 1946; New York: Dutton, 1947) and two anthologies Poems and the Spring of Joy (London: Cape, 1928; New York: Dutton, 1929) and Mary Webb: Collected Prose and Poems, edited by Gladys Mary Coles (Shropshire: Wildings, 1977).

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Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Mary Webb Papers contain 30 holographs and 58 typescript drafts of 80 poems as well as a holograph draft of a book review. The majority of these poems were published in 51 Poems (London: Cape, 1946; New York: Dutton, 1947), a posthumously published collection. The bulk of the material is undated; those works which are dated span the years 1898-1926. Twelve manuscripts were presented to Smith College by David J. and Barbara Holmes on March 29, 1994 in memory of Ruth Mortimer, Class of 1953. The book review was purchased from the Book Press on July 18, 1990, in a red cloth folder with the bookplate of H. Bradley Martin. The remaining 77 manuscripts were purchased in May 1994 from David J. Holmes on the Fund established by Hillier Krieghbaum, in memory of his wife Katherine Lancaster Krieghbaum, Class of 1938. The 77 manuscripts were housed in a blue full leather clamshell box and in a green cloth slipcase with the bookplates of H. Bradley Martin.

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Search Terms

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Organization of the Collection

This collection is organized into two series:

• I. Review by Mary Webb
• II. Poems by Mary Webb, 1898-1926

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Series I. Review by Mary Webb, n.d. (1 item)

Series I. consists of one holograph entitled "Plus que de l'esprit" which is a review of Ariel (1924) and Mape (1926) by Andre Maurois (Folder 1).

Series II. Poems of Mary Webb, 1898-1926, n.d. (88 items)

Series II. consists of 88 holograph and typescript drafts of 80 poems. Two drafts exist for the following titles: "Buds," "The Dance," "The Footpath," "Hazel Buds," "Praise," "The Thought," and "The White Moth". Forty-five of these poems are published in Fifty-one Poems (London: Cape, 1946; New York: Dutton, 1947), six are published in Poems and the Spring of Joy (London: Cape, 1928; New York: Dutton, 1929) and twenty-nine are unpublished.

Series I. Review by Mary Webb, n.d. (1 item)

Series II. Poems of Mary Webb, 1898-1926, n.d. (88 items)