[Isaiah Berlin's secretary Patricia Utrechin.] Two Typed Letters Signed to Philip Dosse, conveying Berlin's unwillingness to review Golda Meir's autobiography ('no reviewing for at least two years').

Author: 
Isaiah Berlin's secretary Patricia Utechin [Isaiah Berlin (1907-1997), historian of ideas; Philip Dosse (1925-80); 'Books and Bookmen']
Publication details: 
16 October and 4 November 1975. Each on letterhead of Headington House, Old High Street, Headington, Oxford.
£150.00
SKU: 25537

See Berlin's entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient Philip Dosse (often addressed, as in this letter, as ‘Dossé’) 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. Both items 1p, landscape 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged. ONE (16 October 1975): She informs Dosse that 'Sir Isaiah Berlin is in Australia for the whole of this term' and will not return until December.' Regardless of the deadline, she thinks it is 'fairly likely he would regretfully say that he couldn't' review 'Mrs. Meier's [sic] autobiography', as 'he has a fairly large backlog of writing to catch up with!' TWO (4 November 1975): She has heard from Berlin, who asks her to tell Dosse that 'he fears he cannot review Mrs. Meir's autobiography for you even if you could await his return: he has so much work to do that he has had to decide to undertake no reviewing for at least two years.'