[Noel Coward’s father Arthur Sabin Coward.] Two Autograph Letters Signed (both ‘Arthur S. Coward’), respnding to a request from Sewell Stokes that he write ‘a special article about Noëls early days’.

According to Noël Coward’s entry in the Oxford DNB, his family moved through the suburbs of south London, before finally setting in Ebury Street, where his mother Violet ‘acquired a boarding-house on the fringes of Belgravia’. The letters are written on the verge of the huge success of the revue ‘Bitter Sweet’ (1929). The recipient of these letters Sewell Stokes was an author and broadcaster who also worked as a probation officer and prison visitor, writing several works on the British penal system. In collaboration with his brother, Stokes also produced a controversial and successful play (later film) about Oscar Wilde, with his friend Robert Morley in the lead role. Both letters are in fair condition, on lightly creased and discolored paper, each with a short closed tear along a crease. Both folded twice. Both signed ‘Arthur S. Coward’, and the first addressed to Sewell Stokes Esq / 48 Springfield Rd / St Johns Wood N.W.8.’ ONE (18 January 1929): He thanks him for his letter ‘respecting a special article about Noëls early days’, but he ‘cannot well do this without first having his advice’. He is writing to his son ‘by this mail’ and will ‘no doubt hear from him by return mail’. TWO (20 February 1929): Again on the subject of his ‘letter to me respecting particulars of my son Noëls youthful days’, he thinks it will be best for Stokes to ‘write to him for this information if you do not mind’.