Call Number:

F0930

Repository:

University of Delaware Library Special Collections

Extent:

10 item (19 pages)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

MSS 0099, F0930, Antonia White letters to Brian Hill and George Dunbar, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware.

Date:

1950 march 16-1971 december 28 (inclusive)

Creator:

White, Antonia, 1899-1980

Form:

Letters (correspondence)

Abstract:

Ten autograph letters written by Antonia White to Brian Hill and George Dunbar, between 1950 and 1971.

British writer and translator Antonia White was born in London, England, on March 31, 1899.

Frost in May, was Antonia White's first novel and was based on her experiences in Catholic convent school as an adolescent. White's three later novels, including The Lost Traveller, The Sugar House, and Beyond the Glass, form the Clara Batchelor trilogy, which is also largely autobiographical.

As a translator, White is best known for her English-language translations of Colette's novels. White was also a fashion editor for the

London Daily Mirror and the London Sunday Pictorial and wrote several books for children.

Antonia White died on April 10, 1980, in London.

"Antonia White." Contemporary Authors Online. Gale Biography In Context. http://ic.galegroup.com (accessed February 12, 2013)

British author and translator Brian Hill, who was born on May 2, 1896, in London, England, wrote poetry, compiled anthologies, and translated works from French and Latin.

Brian Hill also wrote detective and mystery novels, such as

Death in a Box and I Like a Good Murder under the pseudonym of Marcus Magill. Additionally Hill was a contributor to Bookman, Times (London), and other periodicals and newspapers.

Brian Hill and Sir Geoffrey Keynes were the executors of Samuel Butler's literary estate and together they edited Samuel Butler’s correspondence with Miss E. M. A. Savage, as well as Butler’s notebooks.

Hill’s first book of poetry,

Youth’s Heritage, was published in 1917. Hill’s Collected Poems and Translations, was published in 1971. Brian Hill died in 1979.

"Brian (Merrikin) Hill." Contemporary Authors Online. Gale Biography In Context. http://ic.galegroup.com (accessed February 13, 2013)

George Dunbar was the partner of Brian Hill over the twenty years represented in this correspondence. In White’s letter written on July 6, 1969, in which she consoled Hill at Dunbar’s death, she wrote, “I don’t think I know any two people who loved each other so much and were so happy together and who loved each other more and more as time went on.”

Biographical information derived from the correspondence.

British author Antonia White wrote these ten personal letters to her friend and fellow writer Brian Hill and his partner George Dunbar.

The letters, each handwritten, are filled with references to White’s writing projects, such as her Clara Batchelor novels, and to her personal life. White wrote of her inability to write, lamented her need to do translations in order to earn a living, and expressed appreciation for the encouragement she received from Hill on her writing. Antonia White also touched on her struggle with mental illness and the treatments she was receiving, noting: “It is a bore about the mental treatment. I hope it will succeed but am none too optimistic.”

In her letters, White commented on having recently received poetry written by Hill, or praised a book of his which she had just read. The letters include invitations to dinner and acceptances to parties hosted by Hill and Dunbar, such as one to celebrate Hill’s translation of Jean Rimbaud’s,

The Drunken Boat.

Her friendship with Brian Hill and George Dunbar is poignantly expressed in her long and intimate letter, written on July 6, 1969. White wrote to convey her shock at the news of Dunbar’s death and sought to console Hill in his terrible loss, writing: “I think how good he was—and how good you are too—and how you both shame us who call ourselves “Christians.”