PROUST

['I write it as rapidly as I can, with my head full of Marcel': Pamela Hansford Johnson, writer and playwright.] Autograph Letter Signed to V. H. Collins, discussing her Proust-inspired BBC radio play 'Madame de Charlus'.

Author: 
Pamela Hansford Johnson [married name Pamela Helen Hansford Snow, Lady Snow] (1912-1981), writer and playwright, wife of the novelist C. P. Snow [Vere Henry Collins, author]
Publication details: 
31 December 1954. On letterhead of Nethergate House, Clare, Suffolk.
£56.00

An interesting letter, in which Johnson discusses her writing practice. See her entry and that of her husband in the Oxford DNB. The recipient Vere Henry Collins (1872-1966), was an author and grammatical stickler. 2pp, 12mo. 27 lines of text. In good condition, lightly aged, with slight rust spotting from a paperclip. Folded twice for postage. On the topic of ‘Madame de Charlus’, one of the ‘Six Proust Reconstructions’ - plays by Johnson inspired by the work of Marcel Proust - just broadcast on the BBC Third Programme, she thanks him for his ‘most kind & pleasing letter’.

[Sainte Beuve] Autograph Note Signed Sainte Beuve. No addressee.

Author: 
Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve (1804 – 1869), French literary critic.
Publication details: 
No place or date.
£100.00

Paper, 9.5 x 10cm, laid down on larger piece of paper, part of album page, good condition. Vous sentez bien que votre approbation m'est precieuse. Elle l'est par ille-meme & par ce qu'ille suppose - Je suis d'ailleurs toujours un invalide, & ma sante, depuis trois mois et demi, [?] restee avc un grave [accrue?]. | A vous [...]

Three Autograph Letters Signed "Jacques Madeleine" [Eugène Fasquell, Editeur] to [Jules Marsan, editor of Gérard de Nerval etc, at least the first]

Author: 
Jacques Madeleine, lecteur chez Fasquelle, publisher's reader {Proust]
Publication details: 
Bibliothèque-Charpentier, Eugène Fasquelle, Editeur, 11, Rue de Grenelle, 11, 15 Oct. 1912, 5 July 1914. and 12 July (no year given). IN FRENCH.
£180.00

Two pages each, total 6pp., 12mo, one with closed tear on fold but mainly good condition. [15 Oct. 1912] Amidst polite expressions of good will, he acknowledges receipt of Marsan's edition of "las corespondance de Gérard de Nerval". He goes on to give a reference to a letter reprinted in a book recently published by the Bibliothèque Charpentie which might have escaped Marsan's attention. He denies having something ot do with a spelling error ("je n'ai pas eu les épreuves entre les mains").

Eleven Autograph Letters Signed from the diplomat Sir William Alexander Smart to Ernest Frederick Gye of the Foreign Office, from New York, Saloncia, Beirut, Damascus, and five from Paris, with references to James Joyce, Sylvia Beach and Proust.

Author: 
Sir William Alexander Smart (1883-1962), British diplomat in the Levant and Egypt [Ernest Frederick Gye (1879-1955), diplomat; Sylvia Beach; James Joyce; Marcel Proust]
Publication details: 
Dating from between 1917 and 1926. One from New York (1917); one from Salonica (1919); five from Paris (one undated, the other four 1922); one from Beirut (1923); three from Damascus (1924, 1925 and 1926).
£650.00

Totalling 68 pp, comprising 50 pp, 12mo; 18 pp, 4to. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Two signed 'W. A. Smart' and the others 'WAS.' All addressed to 'My dear Ernest'. Written in a spirited, chatty, and (for a diplomat) surprisingly indiscreet style, of which the beginning of the second letter (Salonica; 19 August 1919), concerning the appointment of Victor Vincent Cusden (1893-1980), gives a good example: 'Were you not content with condemning me to physical and financial ruin in this death-trap? Why, to add to my afflictions, did you send me this pathetic shop-boy?

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