AL

TLS: 2pp., 12mo. In good condition. The letter begins: 'Dear Al: | Last Thursday morning, while sitting in a barbar chair, I asked myself a question which a number of people have been asking me recently, namely, What are you doing at Harvard? I couldn't come up with a very satisfactory answer, so I went to a friend's house on Cape Cod for the weekend. Monday I saw the head of the English Department at Harvard, H. C. Baker. He said, "Follow your star," which seemed to me a little romantic, but all the same good advice.

94 + [i] pp. In original green cloth with title in black on front cover. Good, lightly-aged in lightly-worn and spotted binding. Ownership signature ('') in pencil on title-page, with pencil annotations throughout translating passages into French. Chapters on 'Shadowing', 'Burglaries', 'Identification of Criminals', 'Forgeries', 'Confessions', 'Murder Cases', 'Grafters', 'Detective Work in Department Stores', 'Railroad Detective Work', 'Detective Work for Street Railways', 'Other Kinds of Detective Work' (the last including 'Illegal Liquor selling').

Poet and critic (born 1929), friend of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, now best known as a poker player. In good condition. On one side each of 3 4to pages, neatly stapled to a piece of card. '[...] concerning a work at present entitled: | THE IRON CURTAIN SPY | Edited and compiled | by | Al Alvarez | [...]'. The authors name corrected by him in manuscript from 'Al' to 'A.' The first two pages initialled by Alvarez and the last page signed by him.