General correspondence, c1940s-2007

Component identifier:

Series 3

Content Summary:

The correspondence in this series is one of the strengths of the collection. The Duttons were close friends with a number of prominent people in the literary and arts fields and letters from many of them, often spanning a number of years, can be found in this series. Interleaved with these letters are those of family and other friends and a small amount of non-personal correspondence. There are also letters from readers of several of Ninette's published works. For reasons unknown, there is a gap in the correspondence for the period 1957 to 1974.

When received, there were several small groupings of letters created by Ninette Dutton, and these have been retained in subseries 1. However, the bulk of the correspondence was in no particular order and these letters have been grouped and listed chronologically in subseries 2.

Please note that other letters from authors in subseries 1 may also be included in subseries 2. This is because it appears that Ninette only grouped their letters for a certain period of time. For example, Alister Kershaw's correspondence with the Dutton's commenced in 1947, but the group of letters created by Ninette is only for the period 1984 to 1989.

See index to major correspondents.

To assist researchers in identifying authors of letters from family, the following is a list of family nicknames:

Mole - Ninette's nickname for Geoffrey

Skunk - Geoffrey's nickname for Ninette

Jiffa/Gep/Geppy/Bert - various nicknames for Geoffrey

Chibs - Geoffrey's sister, Helen

Tisi - Teresa Dutton

Pusscat and Mumcat - Geoffrey and Emily Dutton's nicknames for each other

Immediate source of acquisition:

The papers were purchased from Ninette Dutton's children, following her death in 2007.

Names:

Dutton, Tisi

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