From Dylan Thomas’ shopping list to a note from Sylvia Plath’s doctor: newly uncovered case files reveal the hidden lives of famous writers

Exclusive: Hardship grant applications to the Royal Literary Fund, including unseen letters by Doris Lessing and a note from James Joyce saying that he ‘gets nothing in the way of royalties’, show authors at their most vulnerable

Tobacco, swiss roll, Irish whiskey, Guinness and monkey nuts: that’s the diet followed by one of the foremost poets of the 20th century.

Dylan Thomas’ grocery bill is among a trove of famous writers’ personal documents and letters – many of which are as yet unseen by the public, and have been exclusively shown to the Guardian – discovered in the case files of a literary charity.

A unpublished note from Sylvia Plath’s doctor and an unseen letter by Nobel prize winner Doris Lessing also feature in the cache of documents, which once formed applications to the Royal Literary Fund (RLF), a charity that awards hardship grants to writers.

Letters from James Joyce, CS Lewis, Joseph Conrad, Mervyn Peake and Edith Nesbit are among those found in the case files, which are stored between the British Library, where they are available to view, and at the RLF offices tucked behind Fleet Street, where discoveries are ongoing as boxes of case files continue to be catalogued.