Rosa Caroline Praed Papers

Items 1 to 30. Includes proofs, manuscripts and other notes relating to 'Nyria' and 'Soul of Nyria'.

Items 31 to 43.

Includes proofs, manuscripts and other notes relating to 'Nyria' and 'Soul of Nyria'. Also a diary of seances April-May 1930, and other notes on occult subjects.

Items 44-56. Includes proofs, manuscripts and other notes on 'Soul of Nyria'.

Items 57 to 122. Includes proofs, manuscripts and other notes including copies of 'Mystics of the eighties', 'Daughters in law', 'The point of Decorum', and early stories such as 'Miss Josselin'. 

Items 123 to 170. 

Includes proofs, manuscripts and other notes relating to Praed's early childhood, station life, an account of the Wills massacre (Queensland 1861), an account of the passage out on the 'Roxburgh Castle', letters to her grandmother (1863 being her earliest surviving letter) and various manuscript short stories and notes for future fiction.

Items 171 to 512. 

Includes letters to and from family and friends, including:
•    Praed's sisters and nieces, including Elizabeth Jardine, reporting family news (1916-1934)
•    From Nora Murray-Prior (1873-1875) reporting family news
•    From Mrs Cashel Hoey (1904) discussing ’Nyria’
•    From Louise Chandler Moulton (1888 – 1894)
•    Autographs
•    From Charlotte McCarthy (1912), concerning proofs for ‘Our Book of Memories’, many sent from Stratford-on-Avon
•    From Frederick Sartoris (1880 to 1887) concerning her works, reactions to the outline for ‘Moloch’ and ‘Nadine’ and proofs of ‘Policy and passion’.
•    From T. Troward (1904-1906) concerning various literary opinions.
•    From J Fitzgerald Molloy (1906 – 1907) from London concerning literary matters.
•    From H. L. Maydwell (1921-1922); Eliza Lynn Linton (1885 – 1897) concerning views on religion etc; George Barlow; Mrs J.S. Smith (1912 – 1913) from London
•    From Praed to various relatives (1905-1927) concerning engagements, travel plans, Belgian refugees etc.
•    From various people (1897-1905) regarding the death of Humphrey Praed in a car accident in Los Angeles in November 1902

Item 513 to 517.  

Includes proofs, manuscripts and other notes relating to ‘Nyria’ and an occult diary dated 1906 to 1912.

Items 517 to 526.

Includes proofs, manuscripts and other notes relating to ‘Nyria’ and ‘Soul of Nyria’, as well as a bundle of newspaper clippings concerning scientific and paraphysical phenomena and including an article written by Praed ‘On second sight’. Also included is a transcript of Hester Dowden’s automatic writings and seances conducted 1929-1932.

Items 527 to 546.  

Includes:
•    Handwritten horoscope for Mrs Campbell Praed with ‘directions for the year from July 1923 to June 1924’
•    Handwritten horoscope for Nancy Harward (ie Ms A H A Harward) for 1923-1924
•    Handwritten horoscope for Mrs [Percy] Collins (ie H C Collins) for Sept. 27th, 1910
•    Bundles of blank horoscope forms
•    Copy of the British Journal of Astrology for April 1919
•    Newspaper cuttings and cuttings from ‘Old Moores’ Monthly Messenger (ie an Astrology magazine)
•    Bundles of articles on astrology, notes for the horoscopes created
•    Exercise book diary for 1930-1931 containing records of mediumistic conversations, with notes on reincarnations of Nyria
•    Exercise book containing record of seances conducted by Hester Dowden (1928-1930)
•    Copy of booklet ‘A message from the Masters of the Wisdom’. (1926)

Includes:
•    reviews of Praed’s works, ‘Policy and Passion’, Nadine, Moloch, ‘An Australian Heroine’ between 1881 and 1885;
•    reviews etc for ‘Nyria’ when in London between 1904-1905;
•    ‘Our book of Memories’ in 1912-1913;
•    letters from Buckley Praed (1893-1906; 1908; 1912);
•    correspondence with Justin McCarthy (1886-1905) when in Boston, including references to ‘The Rebel Rose’;
•    letters from Paris between Praed and McCarthy concerning such things as Praed’s dramatizing ‘The Ladies Gallery’;
•    various House of Commons imprints congratulating Praed on successful performances of works; 
•    letters to Charlotte, and Justin McCarthy (1885-1886) mostly from Dublin;
•    manuscript letters from Justin McCarthy to Rosa, commenting on his own speeches, meetings between McCarthy and Gladstone in 1891 and various other letters between them discussing their novels and their friendship;
•    set of letters that are TS between McCarthy and Praed from 1891-1892 from ‘Cheyne Gardens’ concerning ‘Black and White’ which was just launched
•    Irish politics and Home Rule; writing ‘Romance of Mademoiselle Aisse’ during 1909;
•    postcards from Cannes in April 1910.
 

Items 1036- 1412.  Correspondence with publishers:

•    Trischler & Co. between 4 Sept. 1889 and 7 Nov. 1889 concerning publishing ‘the Australia book’ [=Romance of a station] and ‘The Soul of Countess Adrian’; 
•    S C Walpole from 6 Feb. 1878 concerning the ‘Reader’s report on a short story
•    Letters from Chapman and Hall between 26 August 1882 and 18 June 1912 concerning ‘Zero’, Our Book of Memories, ‘Australian life’.
•    Letters from Tillotson & Co. between 30 May 1889 and July 1893 concerning foreign language translations of her books etc
•    Letters from Cassell & Co. between 23 Feb 1910 and 21 Feb 1913 concerning ‘The Body of Desire’, ‘The Mystery Woman’.
•    Letters from F V White & Co between 20 August 1886 and 29 August 1900 concerning ‘Nadine’, re-issue of 3 titles (being ‘Ladies’ Gallery’, The Rival Princes’ and ‘The romance of a Chalet’) and outstanding royalties.
•    Letters from Art in Advertising in London between 30 May 1889 and 19 June 1889
•    Letters from the Authors’ Syndicate London between 1 Dec. 1897 and 23 June 1909
•    Letters from Baron Taunitz in Leipzig between 30 April 1884 and 16 May 1886
•    Letters from John Land between 9 Feb 1909 and 10 May 1909 concerning copyrighting in UK and USA.
•    Letters from Sir William Bull, London, between 5 Sept 1912 and 13 Sept 1912
•    Letters from Putnam’s Sons, London, between 20 Nov 1903 and 14 Jan 1904
•    Letters from Appleton & Co, London, between 19 Nov 1903 and 20 Nov 1903 concerning ‘Nyria’
•    Letters from Constant Huntington, G P Putnam’s Sons, London, between 4 June 1912 and Jan 1922 concerning ‘Our Book of Memories’ and ‘Lady Bridget of the Never-Never Land’
•    Letters from George Bentley, Slough and London, between 17 Jan 1881 and 17 Sept 1894
•    Letters from John Long, London, between 19 Nov 1901 and 6 July 1913
•    Letters from Chatto & Windus, London, between 8 Feb 1886 and 18 July 1904
•    Letters from E. Vivian Robson to Nancy Harward, London, between 30 Oct 1920 and 27 Feb 1923
•    Letters from Arthur Conan Doyle to Nancy Harward 8 Oct 1889
•    Letters from various correspondents July 1884 to Dec 1884
•    Letters to Nancy Harward from William Scott between 20 Nov 1917 and 9 Feb 1918
•    Letters from H L Maydwell to Nancy Harward between Oct 1921 and Dec 1923 

Items 1413-1728.

Correspondence between 1900 – 26 August 1915 from London with her publisher T. Fisher Unwin; letters from Ralph Shirley in London (1911-1913; 1914 and 1918) who was director of William Rider & Son concerning the sale of ‘Nyria’; letters between Praed and a variety of British publishers between 1878 and 1906 concerning negotiations and agreements, including Remington & Co., Samuel Tinsley of London, William Blackwood of Edinburgh, Arthur Blackett of London; letters from J. Hartley Manners, Comtesse de Gars Elrul (Aisne) requesting permission to translate into Italian and to stage “Two Friends” dated 28 February 1889; correspondence with the Society of Authors between 1902-1907 and 1912 to 1920 including letters to Mr Waugh, Thring, T P O’Connor and Percy Spalding.

Items 1729-2023. 

Publishers' statements and family correspondence, between 1896  including her agreement with Chatto & Windus for ‘Christina Chard’, ‘Our Book of Memories’, ‘The Right Honourable’, ‘Madam Izan, ‘December Roses’ and Literary Agency of London statements over 1908, Hutchinson statements 1918-1924, Fisher Unwin royalty statements dated between 1903-1912; Rider & Co statements between 1912-1918; F V White statements between 1889 and 1907; papers concerned with Colin Roderick’s biography of Praed, ‘In mortal bondage’ (1945-1946); Praed ephemera and family papers including programmes for benefit concerts, pamphlets of the Society of Authors; trust fund receipts, copies of baptismal and burial registers, papers concerning the estate of Louisa Murray-Prior, copies of marriage certificates, material used for the ‘Book on the Eighties’ and envelopes endorsed by Praed on a variety of private matters.

Items 2024 - 2084. 

Photographs of people including Justin McCarthy, Lizzie Jardine, Maud Praed, Campbell Praed (in about 1877), Humphrey Praed, Buckley Praed, several albums of photographs 1877-1902 and of Humphrey and his accident, photos of Rosa in later life, album of photographs of Algiers, and of Sir and Lady Burton and a photo of Nancy dated 1923.

Digital copies available for selected items.

Items 2085 – 2126. 

Notes for literary projects, including ‘Alms for Oblivion’ 1902-1923, TS notes on fairies, quotations, an extract from ‘Letters on Occult Meditation’, chronology of Irish Home rule events 1885-1894.

Items 2127 – 2140.  

Papers relating to Nancy Harward.  MS poems in Nancy’s hand; MS book of significant dates, compiled from her diaries, marked and annotated by Colin Roderick, includes regular meetings with Praed from October 1899 till May 1926.

Items 2141 – 2205.

Nancy Harward’s manuscripts including, but not limited to: ‘A voice from the dead’; ‘Queer clients’; ‘A pair of Wedding Gloves’; ‘Molly of the Mill’;’ My Christmas Nose’; ‘The Pobgee Papers’; ‘The Mysterious Locket’; ‘A couple of queer clients’; ‘Asby Fire’; ‘White Wings’; ‘The Mother Papers: The Mother of the Gracchi’; TS chapters of ‘Exit Mrs Clopstod’; ‘Presents Mrs Clopstocks’; ‘Lizzie’s Love Story’; ‘Venus and others’.

Items 2206 - 2225.

Newspaper cuttings and printed articles and stories.

Items 2226- 2236.

Newspaper cuttings, in 2 large scrapbooks ‘spring-back binder’, on topics such as ‘Ancient civilizations’; spiritualism, marriage, Tibet, Californian Disaster (San Francisco earthquake 1906), plots, murder, tragedies of finance; an article ‘The Situation in Crete’, by the Right Hon. Sir G.F. Bowen GCMS, with pasted in autograph ‘For my friends Mrs Campbell Praed and Justin McCarthy’; the ‘English Illustrated magazine’ 1904, pp:686-687;an interview from the ‘Queenslander’ entitled ‘Our Queensland Novelist’ (26 January 1895 p.171; other articles on Praed in both UK and Australian newspapers; 17 envelopes of miscellaneous cuttings

TS and MS copies of parts of ‘Soul of Nyria’ and ‘Nyria’.

Items 2247 – 2261. 

Praed’s notebooks, papers of Australian relations dated starting with a small notebook being a diary of a trip leaving Dover for Europe on 24 August 1880; ‘notes on literaires’ in August 1923; an exercise book with ‘Interviews through Mrs Dowden from 9th Sept to Oct 17th 1928; wartime postcard from Captain William Addison to B.R. Butler dated 9 Dec 1942; handwritten notes by B R Butler; envelope of 50+ newspaper cuttings; an album ‘Literary scraps and cuttings’ with Praed’s bookplate dated between 1881 to 1933.

Items 2262 – 2298.

TS copies of Nancy Harward’s writings including: ‘Coggy: a comedy’, ‘Lucy Jane’, ‘The Night of the gods’, ‘The Non-successful woman’, ‘How to be happy though single I and II’, ‘A couple of queer clients’, ‘In ancient Kashmir’; an album whose dates range between 1879 to 1891, but mainly 1880 being largely biographical;  a description of her visions; postcards to Nancy between April and July  1920; an album endorsed ‘Printed stories and poems (printed) by Nancy/Winston Kendrick’ et al.

Items 2299 – 2305.

Includes proofs, manuscripts and other notes relating to ‘Nyria’ and ‘Soul of Nyria’ and occult teachings.

Items are undated however the above dates coincide with the publishing of these 2 works.

Items 2306-2311.

Includes proofs, manuscripts, TS drafts of ‘Soul of Nyria’ and ‘Nyria’.

Items 2312 – 2325.

Includes proofs, manuscripts and other notes relating to ‘Word of Power / A Romance of Cap Martin’ (Authors MS foreword, dated 6 Oct 1928 and another version dated 2 Sept. 1928); extract of a letter to Nancy dated Oct 1924; extract from ‘Letters on Occult Meditation by Alice Bailey, et al.

Items 2327 – 2655 (there is no 2326 item).

MS exercise book endorsed ‘My brother - =Australian notes’ being a narrative concerning Jack Beverly of Mt Kelso station, includes references to Hornet Bank and the Fraser murder; a large album titled ‘Australian Notes’ in which many items are pasted or written in concerning Praed’s years in Australia; includes bush names/dialogue, poems, descriptions of terrain, shearing, station life; descriptions of characters for use in her writings, ‘bush characters’, Billy Sheehan – stockman, Lord Henry Lorne and his family at the Hollows; TS poems such as ‘The Creek’, ‘Shearing episodes’, native/Aboriginal language/ word lists, ‘Bush names’, ‘American expressions’, ‘Florence O’Driscoll’, ‘Australianisms’, ‘Life up north – climate, scenery, weather, vegetation – February though the year’  notes on mining, ideas for stories, letter from ‘gold digger’ and a letter from Florence O’Driscoll concerning ‘miner’s rights’ dated 19 Feb 1892 etc

Items 2656 – 2668.

Includes proofs, TS, manuscripts and other notes relating to unpublished novels and psychic material and includes a letter dated 21 March 1925, from Charlotte [McCarthy].

Items 2669 -2676.

Includes proofs, manuscripts and other notes relating to ‘Soul of Nyria’ and includes an exercise book containing ‘supraphysical communications’ from previous incarnations of Nyria and Valeria (Harward and Praed).