Call Number:

F0690

Repository:

University of Delaware Library Special Collections

Extent:

20 item (44 pages)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

MSS 0099, F0690, MacCarthy, Desmond, letters to Sir Ralph and Lady Iris Wedgwood, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware.

Date:

1915-1952 (inclusive)

Creator:

MacCarthy, Desmond, 1877-1952

Form:

Letters (correspondence)

Abstract:

Eighteen letters from Desmond MacCarthy to Sir Ralph and Lady Iris Wedgewood, accompanied by two carbon copies of letters to MacCarthy.

The critic Desmond MacCarthy was born in Plymouth, England, in 1877 and died in 1952, in Cambridge, England. He was educated at Cambridge where he became a member of the elite intellectual society, the Apostles. His associates in the group included Roger Fry, G.E. Moore, and Bertrand Russell. MacCarthy was also associated with the Bloomsbury Group. After Cambridge, MacCarthy served as a critic and editor for a number of publications, including the

New Quarterly and the New Statesman. He married Mary Warre-Cornish (Molly) in 1906. In 1928, he became the senior literary critic for the London Sunday Times. MacCarthy's essays and criticism were frequently collected and published in book form. He was knighted in 1951. "Affable Hawk." Contemporary Authors Online. The Gale Group 2002. Retrieved January 7, 2003, from Literature Resource Center (http://www.galenet.com).

Sir Ralph Wedgwood was a descendant of Josiah Wedgwood, founder of the famous ceramics and pottery firm. He distinguished himself as a railway administrator, was knighted in 1924, and created a baronet in 1942. He married his wife, Iris, in 1906. Their daughter, Veronica, was a distinguished historian.

"Wedgwood, Sir Ralph Lewis." The Dictionary of National Biography, 1951-1960. Oxford University Press, 1971, pp. 1031-1032.

The letters from Desmond MacCarthy to Sir Ralph and Lady Iris Wedgwood Collection contains sixteen letters from MacCarthy to the Wedgwoods; two carbon copies of replies to letters from MacCarthy by Ralph Wedgwood (1947); a letter from Molly MacCarthy, Desmond's wife, to the Wedgwoods acknowledging their condolences on Desmond's death; and a letter from Desmond MacCarthy to Veronica Wedgwood. MacCarthy's letters discuss his own and others' literary work, mutual friends of the MacCarthys and the Wedgwoods, and plans for visits with the Wedgwoods. The 1947 correspondence concerns MacCarthy's attempt to set up a fund to help support the philosopher G.E. Moore.

The letters are arranged chronologically and, except where noted, are from Desmond MacCarthy to Ralph Wedgwood.