[Ethel Snowden, Fabian socialist and suffragist.] Seven Typed Letters Signed and one Autograph Letter Signed, to Rev. A. H. Sayers, regarding a talk by her to the League of Nations Union, Monmouth; with one after her husband’s death.

She her entry, and that of her husband, in the Oxford DNB. Throughout her life she inspired a range of responses. The ‘Labour Leader’ described her as a ‘second Annie Besant’, while Manny Shinwell dismissed her as ‘the would-be Sarah Bernhardt of the party’; to Lord Reith, during her time as a BBC governor, she was ‘the Scarlet Woman’. The present eight items are in good condition, lightly aged, and all folded for postage. A total of eleven typed pages (4to, 12mo and 16mo) and one page in 4to autograph. All signed ‘Ethel Snowden’. In the first letter (TLS, 19 August 1934) she writes that she has ‘thought carefully’ about Sayers’ invitation, and that, although it will involve her in a long journey, she is inclined to accept the invitation to speak at Monmouth on 12 November. She does not ‘want a fee, but as my health is not very good at present I must ask for first-class travelling expenses’, which will be covered by £6. In the second letter (TLS, 22 August 1934) she bewails the lack of a ‘photographic block’ of a portrait, while suggesting three tentative titles (‘as much may happen before the 12th Nov. to alter one’s thoughts’): ‘a. The World’s Need and the League’s Remedy. / b. Is it peace? / c. Has the League of Nations failed?’ The following three letters discuss arrangements, and they are followed by an undated letter thanking Sayers for ‘a very happy time in Monmouth. I enjoyed everything and everybody, and have come away with the happiest feelings about my first visit to your lovely country-side.’ She sends a cheque for one pound, having over-estimated her expenses, and informs him that ‘the meeting in STROUD was a very great success, the hall being packed and people standing.’ In a TLS of 20 November 1934 she thanks him for sending a block: ‘It is the first I have ever possessed and will be useful for other meetings’, and reports that she is ‘to speak in Hull on a peace subject next, for the ROTARY CLUB, but they have given me 50 minutes and invited many guests, so it will be an important occasion’. The TLS of 1937 (11 June) thanks him for his ‘kind letter of sympathy’: ‘You will understand that I cannot write all that I would wish, but I do want you to know that such friendship as you show can comfort and sustain.’