Identity area
Reference code
Beaton/A/A2/14a/124
Unique identifier
Title
Date(s)
- 3 Nov. 1957 (Circa. Letter dated 'Sunday midnight November 3rd'.) (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
Discusses Lord Cholmondeley's vegetarianism and discourages Garbo from becoming a vegetarian. Details his activities during the week since he returned from America. Sends news of Clarissa Eden, who is caring for Anthony Eden during his illness. Admires her for remaining 'so unembittered by Mr Dulles'. Also sends news that Juliet Duff has her foot in a plaster cast and David has returned home to visit his father. Plans to celebrate his mother's eighty-fifth birthday but worries about her health. Impressions of reading a diary written by his Aunt Jessie in Bolivia in 1890. Hopes that Garbo will no longer be ill when he visits New York.