Scope and Contents From the Collection:

Consists of a mixture of materials that belonged to Edith Nesbit, her biographers (Doris Langley Moore and Julia Briggs), her daughter-in-law Gertrude Bland, and others. Includes correspondence, work product, original manuscripts, artifacts, photographs, clipping albums, oversized artwork, and a wooden writing case.

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"Dear Julia, Your letter received this morning was very gratifying and made me more eager than ever to see you here, but now we have reached Christmas week - a period about which my feelings are absolutely pro-Scrooge - I have to postpone making any definite appointment..."

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"Dear Mrs Briggs, I write with difficulty because my hands, my typewriter, and my spectacles are all out of order, so prepare for errors. It was true I was in pain when you and William made your otherwise very agreeable visit here. I have now had the report of an X-ray and it seems that my spine, besides having osteo-arthritis, is tending to crumble for the want of chalk, so now I await instructions for coping with this..."

Scope and Contents "Dear Mrs Briggs, So many people who are asking a favour of a stranger "begin with an apology" but so few make it easy to reply by sending a stamped addressed envelope. Your letter comes at a time when I am coping with immense and most undesirable plans for alteration of the Museum of Costume founded by me in Bath - which are occasioning a great deal of letter-writing; when I am trying to get my last book to press despite perpetual interruptions; and when I am beginning work with a temporary...

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Attachments include an Extract of a letter written by A. Lenore Craser of South Australia in 1973, an extract of a letter by A. Phillips of South Australia in 1973, and the extract from a diary of Peter Jacob Planta, born in 1721.

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Originally sent to Doris Langley Moore. Handwriting at the top (possibly Moore's) indicates that the letter should be forwarded to Julia Briggs.

Contents refer to Margaret Ostler, to whom Nesbit dedicated "The Enchanted Castle" in 1907. She was the daughter of Alice Hoatson's sister Annie. Simpson notes that Margaret may have had an illegitimate child with Hubert Bland in 1913.