DIARIES

[Christopher Fry: the schoolboy diaries of his elder brother Charles Leslie Harris.] Four years of diaries, 1916-1919, covering his time at Bedford School.

Author: 
[Christopher Fry [born Arthur Hammond Harris] (1907-2005), playwright] his brother Charles Leslie Harris (b.1902) [Bedford School]
Publication details: 
1916 to 1919, each a ‘Charles Letts School-Boy’s Diary’. At front of diaries for 1916 and 1917 he writes: ‘C L. Harris / 120 Gladstone St / Bedford’.
£450.00

See Fry’s entry by Michael Billington in the Dictonary of National Biography. His brother survives as a rather shadowy figure: he was certainly alive in 1978, when Fry referred to him in the account of his family background ‘Can You Find Me / A Family History’ (OUP). In that volume Fry describes his ‘brother Leslie’ as a baby ‘growing sturdily’, noting that ‘though he was later called by his first name Charles, he was Leslie for many years to come’.

[ W.B. Lewis, Civil Engineer; Isambard Kingdom Brunel ] Manuscript Journals (9) of an eminent Victorian Engineer.

Author: 
William Bourne Lewis (1831-1902), Civil Engineer [Isambard Kingdon Brunel]
Publication details: 
1873-4, 1877-1880, 1880-1882, 1882-1884, 1884-1886, 1892-1894, 1896-1897, 1898, 1901-1902 (death)
£4,500.00

Nine volumes, 1873-1902 (years as above, some gaps), mainly half and quarter calf, mainly marbled boards, worn but sound, neat handwriting, some signed "W B Lewis | 32 Lee Park". Unpaginated, all vols fully used except last (1902 year of his death), up to 350 pages in each, except one at c.80pp.

[Rev. Henry Erskine Gedge.] Autograph diary of 'Our Life, Social and Domestic', covering 40 years including 16 years as chaplain at the Chapelle Victoria de Grasse, on the French Riviera. With copy of anonymous printed booklet 'A Family Gathering'

Author: 
Henry Erskine Gedge (1832-1913), Vicar of Brixworth, Northamptonshire, Chaplain at the Chapelle Victoria de Grasse, son of Rev. Sydney Gedge (1802-1883; ODNB) [Alice de Rothschild]
Publication details: 
The diary covering the years between 1873 and 1913. The booklet, without publication details, privately printed in 1877.
£450.00

Gedge's short obituary in The Times, 24 March 1913, contains the following brief account of his career: 'Mr. Gedge was a scholar of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he was Carus and Scholefield prizeman, and obtained a first class in the examination for theological honours in 1857. He was ordained in the diocese of Lichfield, and was for seven years vicar of Brixworth, Northamptonshire.

Autograph Journal, by Amy Mary Irving Driberg, mother of the Labour Party politician Tom Driberg [Baron Bradwell], titled 'Tom - School' and containing entries on his schooldays.

Author: 
Amy Mary Irving Driberg [née Bell] (d.1939), of Uckfield Lodge, Crowborough, mother of Tom Driberg [Thomas Edward Neil Driberg, Baron Bradwell] (1905-76), journalist and Labour Party politician
Publication details: 
Entries dating from 27 September 1910 to 30 July 1918.
£180.00

14pp., 12mo. In ruled notebook bound in black cloth. Titled 'Tom - School' at head of first page, with small section cut away from the front cover to make this visible. In fair condition on lightly-aged paper, with one slightly dogeared corner and light staining to blank leaves at the rear. Written while Driberg was between the ages of five and thirteen, and with the handwriting more untidy towards the end.

Eight Autograph Diaries of Frances Barbara Airey ['Fanny Airey'], daughter of Sir George Airey and his wife Catherine, daughter of Lord Talbot de Malahide, written in Paris, 1850-1866, with references to political events and expatriate high society.

Author: 
Frances Barbara Airey (1799-1870), daughter of Sir George Airey (1761-1833) and his wife Catherine, daughter of Lord Talbot de Malahide; sister of Sir Richard Airey and Sir James Talbot Airey
Publication details: 
The eight volumes written in Paris, and dating from 1850, 1851, 1852, 1853, 1854, 1856, 1857, 1866.
£450.00

Eight tall and thin 8vo diaries of unusual shape: the first six 34.5 x 13.5 cm, the last two slightly smaller. The first diary has 120pp., the others of similar length. With between two and four daily entries to a page, depending on the volume. The diaries are elegantly printed by a number of different Paris publishers (Dechamp; Pirmet; 'E. J.'; 'M. et H.'; 'F. G.'; 'B. L.'). Five are bound in light-brown cloth, with coloured paper labels stamped in gilt; the other three have printed paper boards.

Second World War Autograph Diary of Mrs Sheila Stopford of Saxham, Suffolk, wife of Captain James Coverley Stopford, RN, mixing descriptions of day-to-day rural life with informed comment on the course of the war.

Author: 
Mrs Katherine Sheila Stopford [née Macleod] (d.1986) of Saxham, Suffolk, wife of Captain James Coverley Stopford (1909-1985), RN, OBE [Geoffrey Keyes (1917-1941), VC]
Publication details: 
Mostly from Saxham, Suffolk. 24 December 1941 to 29 November 1942.
£400.00

219pp., 4to. Good, on lightly-aged paper, in worn red-cloth binding. Closely and neatly written in a ruled exercise book, with frank and detailed entries throughout providing much information relating to the day-to-day life of women of the rural middle-classes ('country families') in wartime England. A few items including newspaper cuttings loosely inserted. Like her husband, Mrs Stopford came from a military family (her father was Captain G.

Autograph Letter Signed ('F Greville') from the diarist Charles Cavendish Fulke Greville to an unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Charles Cavendish Fulke Greville (1794–1865), Clerk to the Privy Council, and political diarist
Publication details: 
'Grosv[eno]r Place | Saturday [no date]'.
£56.00

1 p, 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper, and still tipped-in onto leaf removed from album. Arranging a time at which to call on him. According to the Oxford DNB Greville moved from Grosvenor Place to Lord Granville's house in Bruton Street in 1849.

The Diary of the late George Bubb Dodington, Baron of Melcombe Regis: From March 8, 1748-9, to February 6, 1761. With an Appendix, containing some curious and interesting Papers; which are either referred to, or alluded to, in the Diary.

Author: 
George Bubb Dodington (1691-1762), Baron of Melcombe Regis [Henry Penruddocke Wyndham (1736-1819), Whig politician and topographer]
Publication details: 
Dublin: Printed by William Porter, for Messrs. Price, Moncrieffe, Exshaw, Jenkin, Wilson, Walker, Beatty, Burton, White, Byrne, Whitestone, Cash, Heery, and Marchbank. 1784.
£100.00

First Dublin edition. 12mo, xiv + 346 pp. Good tight copy on lightly-aged paper. In original worn tree calf binding, with remains of red label gilt on spine and no free endpapers. Subtitled 'Now first published from his Lordship's original manuscripts. By Henry Penruddocke Wyndham.' Wyndham had inherited Dodington's papers from a relative, whose will requested him 'not to print or publish any of them, but those that are proper to be made publick, and such only, as may, in some degree, do honour to his memory'.

Manuscript journal of a South African lady, 1948, returning after many years in England, including an account of her memories 'of the Cape as a girl'.

Author: 
[South African journal of a returning middle-class lady, 1948]
Manuscript journal of a South African lady, 1948
Publication details: 
Dated 'Bellaire Private Hotel | Fish Hoek | Cape Province | Jan. 18th. / 48.' [18 January 1948]
£380.00
Manuscript journal of a South African lady, 1948

4to, 166 pp. In ruled 'University Exercise Book'. Text clear and complete. On lightly aged paper, tight, in shaky binding with worn boards. The identity of the diarist is unclear. Her husband is named 'Berten', and their are references to 'Minie' (daughter?) and 'Kate' (South African sister-in-law?). A loosely air mail letter may provide a clue to the identity of the diary's author. Dated 30 April 1962, it is written by P. J. Duncan of Newlands to Miss Ruth Ince-Jones (diarist's daughter) of Geneva, Switzerland.

Two Manuscript Diaries, covering the years 1916 and 1917.

Author: 
Geoffrey Clifford Tyndale [Divorce Law; Legal History; Reading Lists; The Times of London]
Publication details: 
1 January 1916 to 3 January 1918.
£450.00

Two 8vo diaries, by Charles Letts, the first 'improved' and the second 'self-opening'. Both in heavily worn covers, lacking spines, but internally clean, on aged paper, and with the text entirely legible. Both diaries end with a brief set of accounts. The diaries are filled with details of the life of a young English lawyer in London during the Great War, including references to the many legal cases in which he was involved.

Manuscript letter from 'Mummie' to 'Babsie', consisting of a long description in English of Burma from a visiting mother to her daughter.

Author: 
[Mandalay; Burma; Myanmar]
Publication details: 
March 17 [no year] [around 1927]. Mandalay, Burma.
£65.00

12mo, 15 pp. On watermarked laid paper. Very good, with slight wear to crease on first leaf damaging two words (both still legible). Otherwise text clear and complete. The item can be dated from a reference to 'a Dempsey-Tunney fight'. Although neatly written, the handwriting is so stylised that deciphering the text presents difficulties. Begins 'What a whirl since I wrote you on the boat before we landed in Rangoon [...] HOT. Yes! Right now it is 90 degrees in our room which has windows on three sides & there are two big fans going.

Carbon typescript of review, for the magazine 'African Affairs', of Wallis's edition of Leask's 'Southern African Diaries'.

Author: 
James Pollock, journalist, of the BBC and accredited Correspondent of Argus South African Newspapers Ltd. [Thomas Leask (1839-1912), elephant hunter; big game hunting; safari]
Publication details: 
Undated [circa 1954].
£56.00

8vo: 3 pp. Lightly creased and aged, but in good condition overall. Text entirely clear and legible. Headed ''African Affairs | Book Review (Pollock)'. A knowledgeable and readable review, for the magazine 'African Affairs', beginning 'Thomas Leask was a modest elephant-hunter with a passion for scribbling. [...] he never seems quite to have got over his surprise at finding himself transplanted from his native Orkney to the land of the lordly Matabele and miserable Mashona.

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