Identity area
Reference code
Beaton/A/A2/14a/122
Unique identifier
Title
Date(s)
- 30 July 1954 (Circa. Dated 'September 30th Friday' but contents suggests that the letter was actually written on 30 July.) (Creation)
Level of description
Item
Extent and medium
6 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
Responds to a letter from Garbo. Worries about his mother's failing health. Refers to Nella Webb's advice. Praises his new secretary, Eileen. Describes what he has been doing since returning from America, including writing a book about his American lecture tour. Writes that Waldemar Hansen is staying with him but leaves on 10th August. Plans to holiday in the gulf of Naples, return to England for an October performance of 'Loves Labours Lost' for which he is the designer, and then travel to New York if he gets a design contract for 'The Chalk Garden'. Invites Garbo to visit him in September. Discusses his plans for home improvements. Worries about world politics. Asks after Garbo's new apartment. Tells an anecdote about revisiting the site of his first boarding school. Sends news of Diana, Lucian Freud, and Clarissa and Anthony Eden.