Identity area
Reference code
Beaton/A/A2/14a/119
Unique identifier
Title
Date(s)
- 25 May 1953 (Circa. Letter dated 'Sunday 25th May'.) (Creation)
Level of description
Item
Extent and medium
2 p. paper
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Photographer, artist, writer, and designer of scenery and costumes. Educated at Harrow and St John's College, Cambridge, 1922-5. Made his name as a photographer through portraits of the Sitwells. Employed by Vogue in London and New York. Published 'The Book of Beauty' (1930). Photographed the Duke of Windsor's wedding, 1937. War photographer, 1939-45. Designed 'Lady Windermere's Fan', 1945. Designed costumes for 'An Ideal Husband' and 'Anna Karenina', 1948. Worked on 'The School for Scandal', 1949, 'Quadrille' for Noel Coward, 1952, 'Turandot', 1961, and 'La Traviata', 1966. Designed costumes for 'My Fair Lady', 1956, and for the film version in Hollywood, 1963. His play 'The Gainsborough Girls', 1951 and 1959, was unsuccessful. Published 'The Glass of Fashion' (1954), and six volumes of diaries. Exhibited photographs at the National Portrait Gallery, 1968. Knighted 1972.
Repository
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Explains that he did not write before not knowing whether she had returned from Hollywood. Mentions his business in London and a current exhibition of his paintings. Informs her that his mother is away visiting a sister. Wishes Garbo would visit him in England, where she could be treated by Dr Gottfried. Sends news that Clarissa Eden is building a bigger house but Anthony Eden is ill, and that Juliet Duff has fallen out of a car and broken a leg.