ABOUT THE LETTERS
Ralph Vaughan Williams’s correspondence - with his friends, family, pupils and fellow musicians - paints an intriguing portrait of the man, as well as providing fascinating insights into his major preoccupations: musical, personal and political.
The VWF database includes transcripts of over 5,000 items of annotated correspondence, fully indexed and searchable, which can all be read online. It includes all the letters of Ralph Vaughan Williams known to the editors and is an ongoing project. Find out more about the database.
The text of letters written by Ralph Vaughan Williams remains in the copyright of the Vaughan Williams Foundation and may not be further reproduced without the prior written consent of the Foundation.
Featured Letter
from Vaughan Williams, Ralph, 1872-1958 to Trevelyan, Elizabeth
Letter No. VWL1651
Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Elizabeth Trevelyan
Letter No.: VWL1651
The White Gates
Friday [c.1945?]
Dear Bessy
I wd do much for my friendship to you and to help that poor lady – but I fear her verses are impossible – they are not even bad in the right kind of way, & the first line is almost the same as “Rule Britannia”.
Even if a publisher accepted them she wd at most get £1-1-01 for them – that is what A.C. Graves2 got for the words of “Father O’Flynn” a song which sold in thousands (see Robert Graves autobiography).
love from
R. Vaughan Williams
1. i.e. a guinea.
2. Alfred Perceval Graves
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General Notes:
Dated inferred from the type of paper used in wartime.
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Shelfmark:RCT 16.200
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Location Of Copy:
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Shelfmark Copy:MS Mus 1714/2/6, ff. 144-145
