Call Number:

F1010

Repository:

University of Delaware Library Special Collections

Extent:

1 item

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

MSS 0099, F1010, Somerville, E. Œ. (Edith Œnone), letter to Nevill [Coghill], Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware.

Date:

circa 1930-1949 (inclusive)

Creator:

Somerville, E. Œ. (Edith Œnone), 1858-1949 and Coghill, Nevill, 1899-1980

Form:

Letters (correspondence)

Abstract:

This collection comprises a single autograph letter signed from Edith Somerville (1858-1949) to her nephew, Nevill Coghill (1899-1980).

Irish author and artist E. Œ. (Edith Œnone) Somerville (1858-1949) is best known for her collaborative literary partnership with her cousin Violet Ross, which produced popular works such as

An Irish Cousin (1889). After Martin’s death in 1915, Somerville continued to write and publish for the remainder of her life. She continued to include Martin’s name as co-author on her published works, which included Irish Memories (1917), Mount Music (1919), and The big House of Inver (1925).

Information derived from dealer description. Lewis, Gifford, “Somerville, Edith Anna OEnone (1858-1949),” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2016.

Irish-born English literary scholar and theatre producer Nevill Coghill (1899-1980) was a nephew of E. Œ. (Edith Œnone) Somerville.

Coghill was a Fellow and Tutor of English Literature at Exeter College, Oxford, where he later became Merton Professor of English Literature. He was known for his engaging teaching style, translations of

The Canterbury Tales from Middle English, and his association with the Inklings, a literary circle that included C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams.

Carey, John, “Coghill, Nevill Henry Kendal Aylmer (1899-1980),” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

This collection comprises a single handwritten letter from E. Œ. (Edith Œnone) Somerville to her nephew, Nevill Coghill, in which she asks that he offer his opinions on a playscript by Geraldine Cummins (1890-1969). Cummins collaborated on productions for the Abbey Theatre with Suzanne R. Day, and Somerville reported, had a few plays of her own produced in the 1920s. The current project, Somerville wrote, was on Tchaikovsky.

Somerville also asked Coghill to return the copies she had sent of her "Irish R.M." play, possibly a dramatic rendition of her and Ross's successful series

The Irish R.M.

The letter is written on Drishane House, Skibbereen, Co. Cork, blindstamped letterhead and is dated Friday, August 11. No year is included, but the letter can likely be dated between 1930 and 1949--the time period between which Coghill was developing and solidifying his reputation as a scholar and theatre producer and Somerville's death in 1949.