| Summary: |
The six letter books cover the period January 1886 to March 1904 but exclude the years in which Addis had home leave, namely, 1894 and 1899 and parts of 1888, 1889, 1893, 1895 and 1900. They contain Addis's copies of letters to family and friends, and to colleagues on banking and other business activities. Letter books of bound tissue paper were commonly used for copying correspondence in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Apart from PP MS 14/64 the volumes in this series are in good condition although some letters are so faint as to be virtually illegible. In April 1890 Addis acquired a typewriter. He wrote to his brother George in June of that year, 'A recent touch of writer's cramp, or what I thought was such, frightened me into buying this Hammond Typewriter for my own private writing at night' (PP MS 14/66/3). From that date on Addis made increasing use of the typewriter in his private correspondence.Some of the original letters copied in the letter books are to be found elsewhere in the collection e.g. some of his letters to his family, to Dudley Mills and to Murray Stewart and are indicated thus X. They have been catalogued fully in the following section.
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