"Dear Mr Schroder": an annotated edition of the correspondence between Ursula Bethell and John Schroder

Abstract

This thesis presents an annotated edition of the correspondence between Ursula Bethell and John Schroder, covering the years from 1931 to c. 1941. The correspondence comprises forty-seven letters and is kept in two separate locations. Bethell's thirty-five letters to Schroder are preserved in the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington, while Schroder's twelve letters to Bethell are in the Macmillan Brown Library in Christchurch. The aim of this edition is to provide the reader with an accurate and accessible collection of letters that retain the original spirit of their composition. The annotations provide contextual information surrounding the letters' composition. The introduction to the letters is in four parts. Part One provides a brief history of the relationship between Bethell and Schroder, as well as of the publishing climate in Christchurch in the 1930s. Part Two evaluates Schroder's critical responses to Bethell's work. Part Three comments on Bethell's poetry in relation to concerns and ideologies expressed in her letters, and Part Four establishes editorial conventions and provides a physical description of the collection. Appendix A contains full transcriptions of the seventeen manuscript poems sent by Bethell to Schroder which are extant among his papers in the Alexander Turnbull Library. These transcriptions are placed alongside subsequently published versions of the poems, from both The Press and Bethell's later poetry collections, to illustrate their evolution.