CRIME

[Francis Vivian, writer of popular fiction, author of the Inspector Knollis mysteries.] Typed Letter Signed to Eileen Cond, assessing his books and giving a synopsis of forthcoming story ‘The Frog was Yellow’.

Author: 
Francis Vivian [pen name of Arthur Ernest Ashley (1906-1979), writer of popular fiction, author of the Inspector Knollis mysteries, brother of photographer Hallam Ashley [Eileen Cond]
Publication details: 
11 November 1939; The Chalet, Skegby, Mansfield.
£120.00

An excellent letter to enthusiastic autograph collector Eileen Margaret Cond (1911-1984). It shows Cond’s ability to draw a more than perfunctory response from her targets. 1p, 8vo. In fair condition, lightly aged and folded for postage. Signed ‘Francis Vivian’. He is ‘very grateful’ for her ‘appeciation of my book, The Three Short Men. I have to confess that I thoroughly enjoyed writing it, even though both Pam and Hathersage at times refused to obey my orders, and went their own sweet way.

[Francis Durbridge, dramatist, creator of the BBC radio detective ‘Paul Temple’.] Part of Typed Letter, with Autograph Signature.

Author: 
Francis Durbridge [Francis Henry Durbridge] (1912-1998), English dramatist and author, creator of the BBC radio detective 'Paul Temple'
Publication details: 
No date or place.
£35.00

There were around thirty ‘Paul Temple’ radio serials between 1938 and 1968, along with four films, a dozen books, a television series and a newspaper cartoon strip. Despite obituaries in the major British newspapers Durbridge has not been granted an entry in the Oxford DNB. On 14 x 5.5 cm piece of light-blue laid paper, cut from a typed letter. In good condition, lightly aged. Good clear signature. Reads ‘Thank you for your nice poem - / Best wishes to Dave. / Francis Durbridge’.

[‘My British public is not being discriminated against’: Lawrence G. Blochman, American writer of detective fiction.] Typed Letter Signed to Eileen M. Cond, English autograph collector, discussing English publication of his books.

Author: 
Lawrence G. Blochman [Lawrence Goldtree Blochman] (1900-1975), American writer of detective fiction
Publication details: 
18 September 1954; 370 Riverside Drive, New York 25, N.Y.
£280.00

1p, 4to. Twenty-three lines. Large sprawling signature ‘Lawrence G. Blochman’. In fair condition, worn and creased on lightly-discoloured paper. The recipient, an enthusiastic autograph collector, has evidently asked him to sign a bookplate to be stuck in his latest book ‘’Recipe for Homicide’. Her note has finally reached him ‘through channels (via my English publisher through my London agent to my New York agent)’. He is glad she finds the book entertaining, ‘even though you had not yet, at the time of writing, discovered the culprit’.

[‘The Vagrant, Criminal, and Inebriate Classes’: Wilson Carlile (‘The Chief’), Prebendary of St Paul’s Cathedral and Founder of the Church Army.] Autograph Letter Signed, asking W. S. De Winton for assistance in helping persons to a ‘fresh start’.

Author: 
Wilson Carlile [‘The Chief’] (1847-1942), Anglican evangelist, founder in 1882 of the Church Army and Prebendary of St Paul's Cathedral [Wilfred Seymour De Winton of Haverfordwest]
Publication details: 
5 May 1896; on leterhead of 130 Edgeware Road, London W.
£220.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The Church Army, still active today, was founded in 1882 as a Church of England equivalent to the Methodists’ Salvation Army. From the papers of the recipient Wilfred Seymour De Winton of Haverfordwest. 3pp, 12mo. On a bifolium of grey paper. In good condition, lightly aged. Signed ‘W Carlile / Hon. Chief Sec.’ To the left of the signature, in the bottom-left of the recto of the second leaf, is a purple ink stamp of the following: ‘WRITTEN BY ONE OF OUR POOR STRUGGLING LABOUR HOME BROTHERS’.

[Kenneth Hopkins, poet, critic and crime writer.] ‘Three Sonnets’ by Kenneth Hopkins in ‘The Grasshopper Broadsheets’ series of publications, with Signed Autograph Inscription to London bookseller Andrew Block.

Author: 
Kenneth Hopkins [Hector Kenneth Hopkins] (1914-1988), poet, critic and crime writer [Andrew Block, London bookseller]
Publication details: 
‘Number Three. Third Series. March, 1944.’ ‘Printed by Bacon & Hudson, Ltd., Derby, and published by Kenneth Hopkins, 670, Osmaston Road, Derby.’
£56.00

See Hopkins’s entry in the Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry in English. His papers are in the Harry Ransom Center of the University of Texas. The obituary of the recipient Andrew Block (1892-1987) in ‘The Private Library’ was subtitled ‘the doyen of booksellers’; his business was established in 1911. Printed on one side of a foolscap 8vo leaf. A tasteful piece of provincial printing. Worn, creased and dog-eared, with closed tears at head. Inscribed at bottom-right: ‘for Andrew Block / Kenneth Hopkins’. Titled ‘THREE SONNETS’ and signed in type ‘KENNETH HOPKINS’.

[‘Ellis Peters’, pseudonym of Edith Pargeter, author of the ‘Brother Cadfael’ crime novels.] Autograph Signature, with pseudonym: ‘Edith Pargeter. / ‘Ellis Peters’.’

Author: 
‘Ellis Peters’, pseudonym of Edith Mary Pargeter (1913-1995), author of the ‘Brother Cadfael’ crime novels
Ellis Peters
Publication details: 
No place or date.
£85.00
Ellis Peters

On one side of a 12.5 x 8.5 cm piece of thin white card. Clearly given in response to a request for an autograph. Written in a large somewhat old-fashioned hand, with ‘Edith Pargeter.’ centred towards the head of the page, and ‘‘Ellis Peters’.’ at bottom right. See image.

[Percival M. Stone,book collector; theatre history] Eight long and informative Letters (seven typed, one autograph) to W. P. Macqueen-Pope, foremost British theatre historian of the twentieth century.

Author: 
Percival M. Stone, Book Collector [Harvard Theatre Collection and American and British theatre history.]
Publication details: 
12 Lexington Terrace, Waltham, Massachusetts. One from 1949, two from 1950, four from 1951, one from 1953
£1,650.00

The book collector Percival M. Stone (1886-1965) of Waltham, Massachusetts, was a Harvard alumnus. He was an expert in the field of crime fiction, and in particular the 'Dr Thorndyke' stories of R. Austin Freeman. Stone edited an American collection of Freeman's stories, titled 'Dr Thorndyke's Crime File' (1941), to which he contributed the essay '5a King's Walk'. The eight long and informative letters in this collection reveal Stone's association with the Harvard Theatre Collection (whose curator William B.

[Philip Youngman Carter, Assistant Editor of The Tatler and husband of Margery Allingham.] Eight Signed Letters (three in Autograph, five Typed) to E. V. Knox, regarding reviewing, with galley proof of one of Knox's reviews.

Author: 
Youngman Carter [Philip Youngman Carter] (1904-1969), crime novelist, graphic artist, husband of Margery Allingham, assistant editor of 'The Tatler' [E. V. Knox [Edmund George Valpy Knox] (1881-1971)]
Publication details: 
All eight letters on letterhead of The Tatler and Bystander, London. Seven dated between 17 November 1950 and 14 May 1953, the other without year.
£220.00

According to the Oxford DNB entry on Carter's wife the crime writer Margery Allingham (whose book jackets were among those he designed): 'Their amiable, childless marriage was funded by Allingham's increasingly successful fiction. And, although Youngman Carter assisted his wife as a sounding board for plot design, and by producing covers and illustrations for her work, he found it difficult to sell his art.

[ Leaflet/Handbill; annotated ] Association for the Scientific Treatment of Criminals "The only way to stop us ..."(annotation described below).

Author: 
[ Adler, Freud, Jung, Havelock Ellis and others Vice-Presidents]
Publication details: 
[ London, 1931? ]
£320.00

Printed, 4pp., 8vo, fold mark, small closed tear, good condition, with removeable application for Associate/subscription intact and unused. The word "Criminal" in the title has been crossed out and"Deliquency & Crime" added in MS title. The list of members include Adler, Freud, Jung, Havelock Ellis, Ernest Jones, H.G. Wells and others. The name Dr Otto Rank has been added in MS, and other lesser names typed in (Cyril Burt etc). The leaflet outlines their Aims, with further sections entitled "Existing Anomalies" and "Society's Responsibility".

[Henry Fauntleroy, banker and forger.] Autograph Letter Signed ('H Fauntleroy') to Sir Cuthbert Sharp, written from Cold Bath Fields Prison a few weeks before his hanging at Newgate in front of a crowd of 100,000.

Author: 
Henry Fauntleroy (1784-1824), banker and forger, hanged before Newgate after a trial at the Old Bailey [Sir Cuthbert Sharp (1781-1849), soldier and antiquary]
Publication details: 
'C. B. Fields [i.e. Cold Bath Fields Prison, London] October 14th 1824'.
£500.00

See Fauntleroy's entry in the Oxford DNB. Although accounts of his depravity are exaggerated, Fauntleroy led a dissolute life, and appropriated securities worth around £360,000. During his trial at the Old Bailey he called seventeen merchants and bankers to testify to his integrity, but his defence was unsuccessful, and he was hanged outside Newgate, before a crowd of 100,000. The present item is 1p, 4to. Bifolium, addressed on reverse of second leaf to 'Sir Cuthbert Sharp | &c &c', with endorsement.

[Samuel Warren, Victorian novelist and barrister.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Samuel Warren') to the editor of the Courant newspaper, regarding his 'charge' to the grand jury at Hull, and a planned '“Reformatory School” for juvenile criminals' there.

Author: 
Samuel Warren (1807-1877), novelist, barrister and Member of Parliament, Recorder of Hull [nineteenth-century reformatory schools; juvenile criminals in Victorian England]
Publication details: 
Vittoria Hotel, Hull. 29 October 1854.
£120.00

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, aged and lightly creased. Folded twice. Addressed 'To the Editor of the Courant'. Having been made Recorder of Hull in 1852, Warren begins his letter from that place: 'Sir, | Some friend has sent to me your paper of Thursday, last, containing a very kindly notice on my late Charge to the Grand Jury here.

[George Combe, Scottish phrenologist and lawyer.] Autograph Document describing 'The Police Establishment of Edinburgh', including information on the 'Watching', 'cleaning' and 'Lighting' departments, written out by him for Arthur West of Bath.

Author: 
George Combe (1788-1858), Scottish phrenologist and lawyer, founder of the Edinburgh Phrenological Society [Alfred West of Beechen Cliff, Bath; policing in Scotland]
Publication details: 
Bath. 11 April 1835.
£650.00

1p, 4to. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with minor traces of glue from mount at head of reverse of second leaf, which is addressed, with broken seal in red wax, to 'Arthur West Esq | Beeching [i.e. modern-day 'Beechen'] Cliff | Bath.' The page is headed: 'The Police Establishment of Edinburgh consists of,' and the text is neatly written out in two columns. The first is headed 'In the Watching department', and contains twelve entries from '1 Superintendent' to '2 Female [Turnkeys]', including '30 Night Patrole men' and '166 night watchmen'.

[George Combe, Scottish lawyer and phrenologist.] Autograph Draft, Signed ('Geo Combe'), of part of article or paper on the 'leading object' of the punishment of offenders in prison.

Author: 
George Combe (1788-1858), Scottish lawyer and phrenologist, founder of the Edinburgh Phrenological Societ
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£250.00

Twelve lines of text, on one side of an 11 x 13 cm piece of paper, with 'Messrs. Neill & Co' deleted on the reverse. Part of a draft of an article or paper, with deletions and corrections, signed at foot 'Geo Combe'. The final text reads: 'but until a certain sum be redeemed by the labour, attended by the good conduct, of the prisoner.

[Sir James Alan Park, Georgian judge.] Two notebooks filled with modern manuscript transcriptions of 'Extracts from his Diary 1805-38'. With typescript of some of the transcriptions.

Author: 
Sir James Alan Park (1763-1838), Scottish judge in the English courts
Publication details: 
The entries from Park's diary dating from between 1805 and 1838. The transcriptions apparently made in the 1970s [in Kent?].
£350.00

Vol.1: [1] + 78pp. Vol.2: 8 [+ 8]pp. A total of 86pp of extracts from Park's twelve volumes of diaries. Unpublished. In two uniform stapled notebooks, small 4to, in orange card covers, with the following printed on the reverse of each: 'Manufactured by Supplies Department, Kent County Council'. Accompanied by eleven pages of typed transcriptions from the notebooks. Altogether in good condition, lightly aged and worn. Each volume titled in manuscript on the front cover, with the following shelfmark or entry number: '(M265)'.

[ Reginald Hill, crime writer ] Five Autograph Postcards and Cards Signed (all pictorial) "Reg" to Hunter Davies, author and journalist, and friend since childhood

Author: 
Reginald Hill, crime writer (1936-2012)
Publication details: 
'Oakbank'. Broad Oak, Ravenglass, Cumbria, 3 dated (1994, 2000, 2011).
£150.00

Three Postcards Signed, and two (folding) cards) with between 6-21 lines of writing. Good-humoured tone, with references to a novel published by "Margaret" [Forster, Davies's wife] which has given him an idea for a detective novel, a self-deprecating comment ("insecure jumped up northern grammer school lad"), reflection on how well he and friends have dome (no "jail-bait failures"), news of a death, a White Christmas, a plan for a "double-act at Keswick", treatment for illness (2011), etc.

[ Policing in Victorian England: Essex County Constabulary. ] Manuscript volume containing 332 General Orders by reforming Chief Constable Major W. H. Poyntz, including one relating to the murder of Inspector Thomas Simmonds.

Author: 
[ Essex County Constabulary; Major William Henry Poyntz (1838-1892). Chief Constable; the murder of Inspector Thomas Simmonds, 1885; Rochford ]
Publication details: 
[ Rochford, Essex Police Constabulary. ] Entries dated from the Chief Constable's Office, Chelmsford. 6 December 1881 to 30 October 1885.
£500.00

179pp., foolscap 8vo, and contains 332 general orders by 'W. H. Poyntz | Major and Chief Constable'. The volume is entirely in manuscript, but is not in Poyntz's handwriting. It comprises 168 paginated pages, followed by an eleven-page index giving a one-line summary of the 'Purport' of each order. The volume is a ruled notebook, in original quarter binding of black cloth spine and marbled boards, with the words 'GENERAL ORDERS' printed on a label on the cover, with 'Rochford' written in manuscript beneath.

[ 'Anne Bridge', pseudonym of the novelist Mary Ann Dolling Sanders O'Malley. ] Typed Letter Signed ('Ann Bridge') to her admirer 'Miss Cond' [ Eileen M. Cond ].

Author: 
'Ann Bridge', pseudonym of Mary Ann Dolling Sanders O'Malley (1889-1974), also known as Cottie Sanders, English novelist and friend and biographer of the mountaineer George Mallory
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 27 Charlbury Road, Oxford. 13 February 1970.
£45.00

1p., 4to. She thanks her for her letter, and agrees to inscriber her bookplate. 'I am so glad that you have got "The Malady in Madeira"; I do hope you will enjoy it, especially as you know Madeira.

[ The Greenway Bank Fraud and Victorian 'Prison Rules'. ] Copy of Manuscript 'Statement by Mr Campbell on Greenway', headed 'In the matter of G. a prisoner', regarding an incident at Chatham Gaol resulting in the suspension of privileges.

Author: 
The Greenway Bank Fraud and Victorian 'Prison Rules', 1890 [ Sir Richard Harington (1861-1931) of Ridlington, 12th Baronet; Kelynge Greenway ]
Publication details: 
Place not stated. Docketed 'Rec[eive]d 26 Nov 1890'.
£56.00

3pp., 8vo. In good condition, on two leaves of lightly-aged paper, folded into a packet and docketed (by Harington?) on the outside 'Recd 26 Nov 1890 | Copy | Statement by Mr Campbell on Greenway'. Headed 'In the matter of G. a prisoner'. The document begins with an interpretation of the current arrangements: 'In accordance with the Prison Rules a prisoner under sentence of Penal servitude whilst he continues in the 3rd.

[ William Fuller Boteler, Recorder of Canterbury. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('W F Boteler.'), regarding 'Mr Peels present Bills', the prison population, and the erection of new prisons in the 'corporate Towns' of Kent and elsewhere 'in the Kingdom'.

Author: 
William Fuller Boteler (1777-1845), judge, Commissioner of Bankruptcy and Recorder of Canterbury, Kent [ Sir Robert Peel, Tory prime minister ]
Publication details: 
Lincolns Inn [ London ]. 25 March 1824.
£220.00

4pp., 4to. Bifolium. In fair condition, aged and worn. With a number of emendations, indicating that the letter is a draft. The recipient is not identified, but is presumably a senior Home Office official such as the Principal Private Secretary to Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel. Beginning: 'I find that the list which I sent you, of the number of Prisoners in the Gaol of the City of Canterbury, at the times of holding the General Sessions, for the last quarter years, did include the Debtors & Prisoners under the Mutiny Act.

[ William Roupell, forger and fraudster. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('W Roupell'), expressing thanks for support in his campaign to be re-elected Member of Parliament for Lambeth.

Author: 
William Roupell (1831-1909), forger and fraudster, Member of Parliament for Lambeth, 1857-1862, ruined in the Roupell Case
Publication details: 
Roupell Park, Brixton. 28 April 1859.
£120.00

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium with mourning border. In good condition, on aged and worn paper. Possibly produced in court, as docketed at head: 'facsimile | printed 1st & 3rd' (the present item is not a facsimile). The male recipient is not identified. He wishes to reiterate his thanks 'for the hearty support and valuable assistance you have so kindly tendered in securing my Reelection as one of your Representatives for the Borough of Lambeth'.

[ Victorian poem describing the public execution of a woman. ] Autograph poem by Sir Richard Harington, titled 'The Judicial Murder - A Fragment', a fictional account of a woman's execution, with drawings by the author.

Author: 
Sir Richard Harington (1861-1931), 12th Baronet, of Ridlington [ Eton College; hanging; public execution in Victorian England ]
Publication details: 
[ Eton? 1870s? or Oxford? 1880s? ]
£220.00

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. On paper watermarked 'J GREEN & SON'. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper, with slight loss at the spine.From the Harington family papers, the author's identity being established from other items. Clearly a youthful production, and either written during Harington's time at Eton in the 1870s, or Christ Church, Oxford, in the 1880s. Written employing the long s. The 140 lines of verse are numerated by the author, and a catch-word at the end suggests that more followed or the poet's invention failed him.

[ Joseph Ady, fraudster. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('J. Ady') to 'Mrs Jackson', giving details of funds he claims are due to her, and attacking Sir Peter Laurie for 'Malice'; on reverse of one of his lithographed fradulent circulars.

Author: 
Joseph Ady (1775-1852), Quaker fraudster [ Sir Peter Laurie (1778-1861), Lord Mayor of London ]
Publication details: 
Without date or place [ 1846 or later ].
£220.00

For details of Ady and his methods, see his entry in the Oxford DNB. The present item is on one side of a 9.5 x 22 cm piece of paper.

[ Victorian penology. ] The Punishment of Crime. Paper. Read at Sion College, 19th November, 1895, by Sir Richard Harington, Bart., Chairman of the Herefordshire Quarter Sessions.

Author: 
Sir Richard Harington, Bart., Chairman of the Herefordshire Quarter Sessions [ Transportation ]
Publication details: 
Worcester: Printed by J. S. Cook, Reliance Work, Foregate Street. [ 1896. ]
£80.00

32pp., 8vo. Stitched pamphlet. In fair condition, aged and spotted. In small print, with footnotes. One minor manuscript emendation.

[ Susan Gilruth, crime writer. ] Personal album of material ("guard-book" relating to her seven crime novels, with numerous newspaper cuttings, dustwrappers, a press release, three items of fan mail.

Author: 
Susan Gilruth [ born Susannah Margaret Hornsby-Wright ], crime writer
Publication details: 
[ England. Between 1951 and 1963. ]
£320.00

Gilruth was the author of seven crime novels: 'Sweet Revenge' (1951), 'Death in Ambush' (1952), 'Postscript to Penelope' (1954), 'A Corpse for Charybdis' (1956), 'To this Favour' (1957), 'Drown Her Remembrance' (1961) and 'The Snake is Living Yet' (1963). The material in this collection is in good overall condition, lightly aged and worn. Most of the material is laid down on 41pp. of a 25 x 38 cm. album (ownership signature on front pastedown), with press cuttings of reviews grouped around the cut-down dustwrappers of the first six of Gilruth's books.

[ Victorian blackmail and 'personation'. ] Six items relating to a letter from Nellie Rowan to Sir Richard Harington. Including s 'Special Report' by Inspector Arthur Hare, note from Assistant Commissioner Sir Robert Anderson, copies by Harington.

Author: 
Inspector Arthur Hare; Sir Robert Anderson, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police; Sir Richard Harington of Ridlington, 11th Baronet
Publication details: 
[ The Metropolitan Police, Criminal Investigation Department, New Scotland Yard, London. ] All items dating from 1896.
£450.00

Six items, all but the last in good condition, with light signs of age and wear. A highly-entertaining snapshop of the seamier side of Victorian life, with the Metropolitan Police investigating after Sir Richard Harington of Ridlington, 11th Baronet, (1835-1911) alleges a blackmail plot, following his receipt of a letter from Mrs Nellie Rowan (Item Two), in which she addresses him as 'Dick', refers to her 'Rubbing Care' and ends in ' Kisses XXXXXX'.

[ Victorian assizes on the Oxford Circuit, 1891-1899. ] Nine printed Calendars of Prisoners, for trial at seven Assizes and three Quarter Sessions, at Gloucester, Hereford, Stafford and Worcester. With annotations by the future Sir Richard Harington.

Author: 
Oxford Circuit, 1891-1899; Victorian assizes and quarter sessions in Gloucester, Hereford, Stafford and Worcester [ Sir Richard Harington (1861-1931) of Ridlington, 12th Baronet ]
Publication details: 
Between 1891 and 1899. One Gloucester catalogue by John Bellows; one Hereford catalogue by S. Adams; two Stafford catalogues by Wright & Roberts; five Worcester catalogues by Deighton and Co.
£650.00

Nine 4to calendars of prisoners at six assizes and three quarter sessions at the following locations on the Oxford Circuit between 1891 and 1899: Gloucester (1), Hereford (1), Stafford (2), Worcester (5). Each of the nine is stapled and unbound. ONE: County of Hereford, Autumn Assizes, December 1891, [8]pp. TWO: County of Worcester and City of Worcester, and County of the same City, Winter Assizes, February 1895, [2] + 9pp. THREE: County of Stafford, Winter Assizes, March 1895, [2] + 13pp. FOUR: County of Stafford, Autumn Assizes, November 1895, [2] + 21pp.

[ John M. Anderson, Governor of Warwick County Prison. ] Long Autograph Letter Signed ('Jno. M. Anderson | Esq.') to Richard Harington, regarding his 'circular as to the treatment of prisoners'.

Author: 
John M. Anderson, Governor, County Prison, Warwick [ Sir Richard Harington (1861-1931) of Ridlington, 12th Baronet ]
Publication details: 
'County Prison Warwick | 15th. Feb 1876.'
£400.00

9pp., 4to. On grey laid paper. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, on nine leaves held together with a pin. He begins by discussing Harington's 'first motion, viz, "that all persons who are in custody for the purpose of detention merely and not in execution of a penal Sentence for an Offence should be subjected to one uniform discipline"'. Other topics discussed include: 'the proposal "That power be given to the Courts to place any person convicted of felony and not sentenced to Hard labor on rules for 1st.

[ Freya Stark, explorer and travel writer. ] Three Autograph Cards Signed (all 'Freya Stark') to the crime writer Susan Gilruth, socialising and praising her books.

Author: 
Freya Stark [ Dame Freya Madeline Stark; Mrs Stewart Perowne ] (1893-1993), British explorer and travel writer [ Susan Gilruth [ born Susannah Margaret Hornsby-Wright ], crime writer ]
Publication details: 
9 and 23 February, and 9 March. The first two from 30 Chester Street, SW1 [ London ], the last from Asolo [ Italy ].
£280.00

Three plain postcards (no illustrations), with stamps and postmarks, all addressed to Gilruth (author of seven crime novels punlished between 1951 and 1963) at 7 Reston Place, Hyde Park, London. The three cards in fair condition, aged and worn, with staining to corners from mounting, and two of the signatures only half-legible through fading. In the first she says that she is in London until the end of February, and 'would like so much' to see her again: 'Could you come in for drinks with a few friends on Tuesday Feb 17th?' The second begins: 'Thank you ever so much.

[ Anthony Berkeley Cox, crime writer. ] Eleven Typed Letters Signed (nine 'Francis Iles' and two 'A. B. Cox') and one Typed Postcard Signed to Margaret Greenwood, on her wish to adapt 'Malice Aforethought' for film, with copies of her letters to him.

Author: 
Anthony Berkeley Cox (1893-1971), British crime writer under the pseudonyms 'Francis Iles', 'Anthony Berkeley', and 'A. Monmouth Platts', best-known for 'Malice Aforethought' [ Margaret Greenwood ]
Publication details: 
Nine on letterheads of 86 Hamilton Terrace, NW8 [ London ]; and two on letterheads of Linton Hills, Welcombe, Bude. Between 8 June 1949 and 13 July 1950.
£750.00

A total of 30 items. Cox's eleven letters total 16pp., and Greenwood's eighteen letters total 28pp. (several written on drafts of pages of her writing). In good condition, lightly aged, held together with a brass stud. An amusing correspondence, with Cox responding with amused bewilderment to the inexperienced approaches of his enthusiastic correspondent. Greenwood – who writes from 15 Horsham Road, Bexleyheath, Kent – is something of a bluffer.

[Crime Writers' Association] An archive of membership list, accounts, correspondence and related material.

Author: 
[The Crime Writers Association]
Publication details: 
1953-1975 (mainly pre-1960).
£850.00

The Crime Writers' Association (CWA). Founded 5 November 1953An Archive accumulated during his periods in office by T.C.H. Jacobs, aka Jacques Pendower, author, sometime Hon. Treas., Vice-Chairman, and Chairman of the CWAIt was unanimously agreed that those present should found forthwith an association of crime writers, the specific purpose of which should be to raise the prestige and fortunes of mystery, detective story and crime writing and writers generally.Aim of the CWA recorded in the Minutes of the inaugural meeting.1. (Periodical) The Crime Writer, nos.

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