[Lord Kinross, Scottish historian of Islam and biographer of Kemal Ataturk.] Eight Autograph Letters Signed and one Autograph Card Signed to Philip Dosse, publisher of ‘Books and Bookmen’, regarding reviewing by him and others.

Author: 
Lord Kinross [John Patrick Douglas Balfour, 3rd Baron Kinross] (1904-1976), Scottish historian of Islam and biographer of Kemal Ataturk [Philip Dosse (1925-1980), publisher ‘Books and Bookmen']
Publication details: 
The nine items between 3 December 1973 and 26 September 1975. All nine with letterhead of Lord Kinross, 4 Warwick Avenue, London W2.
£220.00
SKU: 24863

Puzzlingly, considering his prominence in his field, Kinross is denied an entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient Philip Dosse was proprietor of Hansom Books, publisher of a stable of seven arts magazines including Books and Bookmen and Plays and Players. See ‘Death of a Bookman’ by the novelist Sally Emerson (editor of ‘Books and Bookmen’ at the time of Dosse’s suicide), in Standpoint magazine, October 2018. Each letter is 1p, landscape 12mo. One of the nine items has creasing to one edge, otherwise the collection is in good condition, with light age and wear. Seven of the eight letters are signed ‘Patrick K’, the eighth is signed ‘Kinross’ and the card is signed ‘K’. The correspondence demonstrates Kinross’s not-inconsiderable involvement with ‘Books and Bookmen’. On several occasions he asks for payment for contributions, as on 22 July 1974, when he writes ‘My dear Philip, / I feel I must prod your memory again, now that the July issue is out, with my article. I am now owed £120 for four pieces, with another in the pipeline for August. / As this represents quite an important item in my personal mini-budget, perhaps you will now find time to see to it, among your numerous other [activities?].’ On 26 September 1975 he asks ‘to be considered for Cyril Connolly: A Romantic Friendship: The Letters of CC to Noel Blakiston when it comes out (Constable) unless of course it has already been bespoken by that other “well-known book-reviewer”, Auberon Waugh. But I do feel strongly that this is a book to be done by a friend, not an enemy, of Cyril’. He makes several suggestions, including the following, 27 January 1974: ‘I don’t know whether you saw this, by my old friend Lionel Hale. You will know of him as a critic, playwright, writer & broadcaster, with a wide public at one time. He has dropped out of things rather in the last ten years or so, largely through ill-health and so on. But now he is beginning to come back, and it seemed to me you might find it worth while to include him among your writers. He would be good on anything to do with any of the media, particularly the stage.’ He gives Hale’s address, but asks Dosse ‘not to mention to him that I suggested it’.