ENGLISH

Proctor was a much loved individual in literary circles, from the days of the London Magazine to the mid-Victorian period, in which he was the dedicatee of both Thackeray's 'Vanity Fair' and Wilkie Collins's 'Woman in White'. His reputation as a poet was international: he was thought highly of by Pushkin. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to blank reverse. The letter reads: 'Dear [Harris?] | Pray tell me where [?] I can have some conversation with you about some patients of the name of [Lealer? Lester?], whom you know.

Nine letters (eight ALsS and one TLS) totalling 16pp, 12mo, in close and neat autograph; and 2pp, 4to, typed. One from 1932 and the other eight from 1933. All signed 'Arthur Bryant'. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper, with slight rust-staining from paperclips to a couple of the letters. An interesting correspondence, in which Bryant gives an assessment of Pepys, and describes his approach to writing his biography. In one long letter (5 May 1933) Bryant describes his wider approach to the writing of history.

1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Addressed to 'R Bentley Esqre.' Reads: 'My Dear Sir | I this day received the note which you directed to be sent to me and will do myself the pleasure of calling upon you on Friday Morning at eleven'. Having previously appeared as a serial, Cockton's first novel 'Valentine Vox' was published in book form by Robert Tyas in 1840. Bentley commissioned Cockton's second novel 'Stanley Thorn' for 'Bentley's Miscellany', and published it in book form in 1841.

The letters are in fair condition, lightly aged; the card is discoloured and stained. Loosely inserted in a copy of Williams's 'Thomas Cranmer of Canterbury', 75 + [1]pp, 8vo, with the ownership signature 'Christopher Fry' on the front free endpaper, in worn binding with fraying at head of spine. Delightful and revealing letters, mixing personal and business (Williams worked for the Oxford University Press and Fry was published by them). ONE: ALS from Southfield House, 17 December 1941. 2pp, 12mo. Thirty lines of closely-written text, on a leaf of ruled paper torn from a notebook.

115pp, 12mo. In good condition: sound and tight, on browning War Economy paper, in green cloth with slight bloom, and in slightly worn and chipped browning dustwrapper. (The subtitle 'A Play in Three Acts' features on the dustwrapper, but not on the title-page.) Fry's ownership inscription 'Christopher Fry' is in blue ink at the top right-hand corner of the recto of the front free endpaper. A verse drama from the library of the leading twentieth-century English exponent of the genre, after T. S. Eliot.

55pp, 8vo. In fair condition, internally tight and sound, on browning paper, in lightly-worn blue cloth binding. No dustwrapper. Slight dink at head of spine. Ownership inscription 'Christopher Fry' in blue ink at top right-hand corner of recto of front free endpaper. Fry and Williams were on cordial terms, the latter working for Oxford University Press and the former being published by them.

The background to this letter is explained in Simpson's entry in the Oxford DNB which states that he 'took a deep interest in the movement for better elementary education. He was one of the founders of the Edinburgh modern infant school, in which he attempted to solve the problem of religious education by allowing parents to select religious instructors themselves. Failing to receive adequate support, however, the school was ultimately sold to the kirk session of New Greyfriars.

1p, 12mo. On bifolium. Printed on grey-blue paper, with letterhead printed in orange-red, without Landseer's name, but with his stag's head motif. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with thin strip from stub mount adhering to blank second leaf. Folded twice. The recipient is not named. Apparently referring to his bronze sculptures of the four lions at the base of Nelson's column (installed in 1867), the letter reads: 'My Dear Sir | Many thanks for your obliging Note and kind attention to the Lions Heads – I can't leave home Tomorrow before 4. oc when I shall go to B.

[12]pp, 8vo. Paginated to 14, but twelve pages on six leaves, comprising half-title, title and eight pages of text. Sewn into raspberry printed wraps. Title with engraving of the church, duplicated on front cover. Internally in fair condition, with slight creasing, but with blue ink (or wine?) stain at foot of outer edge of front cover. Bloomfield & Mendelson A46, which states that the edition was printed in November 1963 and limited to 250 copies, 'sent out to a number of personal friends whose names were mainly suggested by Mrs. MacNeice'. In this case, from the library of Christopher Fry.

1p, 12mo. In fair condition, on browned paper, with glue from mount adhering to blank reverse. The last leaf of a letter, evidently detached for an autograph hunter. Good bold handwriting. Reads: 'I shall be only too glad to avail myself of it | Yours very sincerely | Alfred Gilbert'.

2pp, foolscap 8vo. On the rectos of the leaves of a bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. On laid paper with indistinct watermark. The context of the document, with the capitalisation and spelling ('mechanick', 'shou'd', 'Publick', 'tyed down', 'lookt', 'Profitt'), points to a late eighteenth-century origin (certainly before the Speenhamland System and Michael Nolan's 1805 'Treatise of the Laws for the Relief and Settlement of the Poor'). No title or heading. A forthright document, whose rhetorical tone suggests that it was intended for public delivery.

2pp, 12mo. On a bifolium of grey laid paper, with fleur-de-lys 'J M & Co' watermark. In good condition, lightly aged, with creases from having been neatly folded three times, and stub adhering to edge of blank second leaf of bifolium. The item derives from the collection of a notable nineteenth-century autograph collector, Lord Houghton, a friend of both Taylor and Norton.

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)'.

On 10 x 6 cm slip of laid paper cut from an album, with partial ruled border in pink and blue. In good condition, lightly aged. A good firm signature, reading 'Randolph S. Churchill.' No other writing on the same side; with signature of 'Geoffrey H. Crump' on the reverse.

4pp, 12mo. Bifolium of grey paper. In good condition, lightly aged.

2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Reads: 'I pray your forgiveness. I am sincerely ashamed of my bad behaviours in putting by your letter & forgetting to answer it, especially when it was written for a charitable purpose. With great pleasure I enclose a small donation & am sorry it was not in time for your dinner.'

1p, 12mo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Folded once. Signed 'Rafael Sabatini'. After thanking her for her letter of sympathy, he notes: 'In the past I have had plenty of cause for complaint, but nothing quite so flagrant.' He has been 'avenged by the Press, which described the unutterable scenario from which the film was made in terms similar to those which I employed when I requested that my name be removed from the “author credits”'. He ends with good wishes to her 'laudable enterprise'.

[3] + 210pp, 8vo. Disbound, and wrapped in brown paper. A tight copy, on aged and spotted paper, with small closed tear to title-leaf, which also has manuscript misidentification of the author as 'J Kotz[...]' in one margin. There is no copy of this first edition at Cambridge University Library, and the only two copies found on COPAC at Leeds and the British Library. The same year saw a 'Second edition, with an elegant frontispiece', published in London and 'printed for W. J. and J. Richardson; J. Harding; Shepperson and Reynolds; H. D.

An interesting archive of material relating to a movement whose influence extended beyond the British Empire. In 1906 the MEL had induced the Board of Education to make provision for moral instruction in the education code for England and Wales, and two years later the first in a series of International Moral Education Congresses was held at the University of London, with Michael Sadler in the chair (the sixth and last would take place in Krakow, Poland, in 1934). The twenty items present here are in good condition, lightly aged and worn.

1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with a two fold lines. Ornamented engraved letterhead. Reads: 'Dr Lindley presents his Compts to Major Abby & begs to inform him that there are no such birds as he enquires for in the Garden of the Horticultural Society, nor has there ever been. There is only a couple of gulls & a duck, which were presented by the Zoological Society'.

All three 1p, landscape 12mo. All in good condition, lightly aged. ONE: 9 December 1974. He thanks him for 'the invitation […] But as I'm teaching full-time here now, this would be very difficult to arrange as far as schools visits would be concerned. (I asked the Arts Council to take my name off the schools list, but they don't seem to have done so).' He suggests a 'reading during the holiday break, perhaps. One aimed principally at adults, I mean.' The 'London Poetry Secretariat/Arts Council link-up' might 'provide some kind of subsidy'.

2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. The female recipient is unidentified, but would appear to be the editor of a magazine, enquiring after the progress of a 'paper' Ellis has agreed to write on 'Java Sparrows'. Ellis explains that she has 'begun a better story in the Child's department which it is consequently necessary to finish first', to appear 'in the number for June', but that 'your paper shall certainly come next'. The handwriting is not altogether straightforward, but Ellis appears to say here that 'stories will not always [write?] up when [necessary?]'.

2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. He thanks her for remembering him and sending 'that splendid photograph of yourself – I really think it is the best I have seen'. He continues: 'I have been “slogging” away at water-colours for a shew in Manchester and so have kept pretty busy.' He is sending 'a Nile water colour to the New Gallery', and has sent 'an oil to the Academy – they are sure to kick it out so I shan't mind'. He hopes that she and her sister 'are all right' and 'enjoying this lovely weather'.

1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged. Reads: 'Palace Dublin | Sept 28/74 | Madam | I send you the autograph which you desire. | Yr. obedt. Servt | Richd. C. Dublin | Miss Julia Glover'.

He asks Streatfeild to advise him in a matter 'which speaks for itself'. He reports that 'poor Lady Elgar is greatly distressed – and not without reason – at the treatment of the two great oratorios'. Phillips does not 'quite see what is to be done in the way of protest', although he finds that the 'statement that they “fail with audiences &c” is certainly false in fact, [last three words underlined] and therefore almost libellous'. Phillips considers 'the rest […] a matter of opinion. Perhaps even more false and absurd is the statement, or opinion, that they appeal only to the intellect.

1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and grubby, with three folds. The letter reads: 'Dear Streatfield | it is no use sending me the Score of the Symphony here at present, as I am too busy to look at it properly, besides which, all my Programmes are definitely fixed till the end of the season, but if you will ask Mr. Hinton to send it to me to Hamilton Terrace (54, not 73) after Feby., when I shall be back in town, I shall be pleased to look through it.'

An interesting communication from one noted twentieth-century English-language poet to another, and of additional significance as a V-Letter written in the year of publication of Shapiro's first successful collection, the Pulitzer Prize winning 'V-Letter and Other Poems' (1944). (See Diederik Oostdijk, 'The Wartime Success of Karl Shapiro's V-Letter' (2006).) The present item is a V-Mail [Victory Mail] letter: a 13.5 x 11 cm photograph print of an autograph letter bearing the censor's stamp.

De la Mare's definitive answer to the oft-asked question regarding the meaning of his best-known poem - and also one of the most celebrated English poems of the twentieth century - 'The Listeners'. 1p, 4to, in good condition, lightly aged, folded twice. After thanking her for her 'kind letter', he adds: 'I am afraid you may not find my answer to your question a very satisfactory one.

1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with small trace of glue from mount at foot. Folded twice. Reads: 'Dear Madam | I have much pleasure in complying with your request & beg to remain | Yours faithfully | Charlotte H Sainton Dolby'. See her entry in the Oxford DNB.

Pamphlet, [16]pp. (inc.wraps). 8vo. beige wraps, sl. grubby, mainly v.g.