DL/A-Z//ANDERSON D - [Correspondence with Daphne Anderson]

DL/A-Z//ANDERSON D

File

[Correspondence with Daphne Anderson]

1988-01/08/1997

2 Article
4 Letters (typescript)
1 Greetings cards

Anderson, Daphne

001 and 002 are 2 drafts of an enconium for Daphne Anderson’s The Toe-rags. Discusses colonialism in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe and childhood. “I don’t see how there could be a better book about early Southern Rhodesia, that rough, raw, often cruel country, where white people behaved like bullying pirates with no suspicion their rule would be so short.”

003 is a letter from Daphne Anderson to Doris Lessing, thanking Lessing for the enconium for her book The Toe-rags. Mentions a conversation Anderson and Lessing had as children “at the Convent in Harare”; mentions that Lessing had clear plans to be a writer at the age of 13. Mentions Lessing’s school nickname, “Tigger Taylor”. Lessing hand writes “Wrote 5/11/94”

004 is a letter from Anderson to Lessing, referring to the section of Under My Skin that describes Anderson during Lessing’s school days, and her book The Toe-rags. “I seem to be writing letters of thanks to you, but I was in a state of euphoria reading what you had to say. How could you remember me from more than fifty years ago?” Lessing hand writes: “Book sent 11.11.94” [refers to a copy of Under My Skin].

006-007 are 2 letters from Daphne Anderson to Doris Lessing. In 006 Anderson explains that she has lost her connection with Andre Deutsch and doesn’t know how to get her latest work – 10 short stories set in Africa and Malaya – published, then asks Lessing for help. Lessing hand writes “Carl”. In 007 Anderson thanks Lessing for offering to read her work. Lessing hand writes “read MS. [illegible] Becky Swift Service” [Rebecca Swift ran a mentoring scheme for authors].