ROMANIA

[Miron Grindea, editor of the long-lived London literary magazine ‘ADAM International Review’.] Autograph Letter Signed (‘Adam’), advising Philip Dosse of ‘Books and Bookmen’ on the question of applying to Jean-Paul Sartre for a review.

Author: 
Miron Grindea [born Mondi-Miron Grimberg] (1909-1995), Romanian-born founder and editor of the London literary magazine ‘ADAM International Review’, published 1941-1995 [Philip Dosse (1925-1980)]
Publication details: 
‘Saturday’ [no year]. On letterhead of 1 Palmeira Square, Hove, Sussex.
£50.00

An interesting item, linking the editors of two prominent literary magazines. See his entry in the Oxford DNB, which states, without giving a date, that ‘Chaotic working conditions led to desperation: Grindea sold the title to Frank Cass and retreated to Hove hoping to write his memoirs, but quickly decided he didn't want to and “in agonies of self-flagellation begged Cass to sell back the magazine”’. The recipient Philip Dosse was proprietor of Hansom Books, publisher of a stable of seven arts magazines including Books and Bookmen and Plays and Players.

[Prince Matila Ghyka, Romanian mathematician.] Correspondence to him in French from Karl Häuptli, Swiss architect (TLS and three Autograph Studies, with diagrams, on ‘le nombre d’or’) and A. Andre of Marseilles (TLS and enclosures on the I Ching).

Author: 
Prince Matila Ghyka [Matila Costiescu Ghyka] (1881-1965), Romanian aristocrat, mathematician and polymath; Karl Häuptli (b.1894), Swiss architect associated with Theodor Fischer; A. Andre]
Publication details: 
ONE (Häuptli): 11 April 1953; on his letterhead as ‘Diplomierter Architekt / Fachlehrer am Kantonalen / Technikum in Biel [Switzerland].’ TWO (Andre): 17 March 1965; ‘17 av. des Coccinelles / Les Caillols / Marseille (XIIe) [France]’.
£850.00

Ghyka, who was grew up and was educated in France, settled in London after the Second World War, and is considered one of the most significant members of the Romanian diaspora. His main preoccupation was with geometry and mathematical aesthetics, and his publications on the subject were influential: the ‘first epiphany’ of theatre director Peter Brook ‘came while reading a book by the Romanian prince Matila Ghika while staying with Salvador Dalí in Spain’ (Guardian, 17 January 2010).

[Queen of Romania: Elisabeth of Wied.] Long Autograph Letter Signed ('Elisabeth'), in French, to the novelist Louis Ulbach, lamenting the death of her cousin Marie of Waldeck and praising his work.

Author: 
Queen of Romania: Elisabeth of Wied [Pauline Elisabeth Ottilie Luise] (1843-1916), wife of King Carol I, prolific author under the pseudonym ‘Carmen Sylva’ [Louis Ulbach (1822-1889), French novelist]
Elisabeth
Publication details: 
'Sinaie, [i.e. Sinaia, Romania] ce 1. Mai 1882'.
£500.00
Elisabeth

Not only an unusually intimate letter for a member of royalty to write, but also an interesting communication from a poet to her mentor.

[British Embassy Medical Officer in Cold War Moscow and Bucharest.] Unpublished typed account by T. V. Humphreys of his journeys around Romania and Russia during five years of service, also describing medical aspects and 'Soviet methods of medicine'.

Author: 
Col. Thomas Victor Humphreys (b.1922), O.B.E., M.B., B.Ch., B.A.O, Royal Army Medical Corps, British Embassy Medical Officer at Moscow and Bucharest [USSR; Soviet Union; Iron Curtain; Russia; Romania]
Publication details: 
December 1952 to January 1953. Romania and the USSR (Russia). Russian locations: Moscow, Leningrad, Peterhof, Tsarskoe-Selo, Gatchina, Pavlovsk, Kharkov, Kiev.
£1,250.00

Biographical details regarding Humphreys are hard to come by. He features in two Times reports of the indisposition of the pianist Cyril Smith in Moscow in 1956 (8 May and 9 June). On his award of the OBE in the 1958 New Years Honours List he was described as 'lately First Secretary and Medical Officer at Her Majesty's Embassy in Moscow'. On his retirement in 1987 he was described as 'Col. T. V. Humphreys, O.B.E., M.B., B.Ch., B.A.O.

[ Winifred Gordon, W. J. Barwick of Truslove and Hanson, and C. F. Cazenove. ] Autograph Letter Signed by Gordon, two Autograph Letters Signed and Autograph Note Signed by Barwick, and three copies by Cazenove, on her book on Romania.

Author: 
Winifred Gordon [ Winifred Monckton Campbell Gordon ] (d.1957), author; W. J. Barwick, director, Truslove and Hanson, London publishers; Charles Francis Cazenove (1870-1915), London literary agent
Publication details: 
Gordon's letter on letterhead of the Hotel d'Angleterre, Copenhagen. 24 June 1912. Barwick's three items on letterheads of Truslove and Hanson, 6a Sloane Street, London. June and July 1912.
£280.00

Gordon is described in The Times, 20 August 1958, as a 'traveller, lecturer, and author', and a resident of Lausanne at the time of her death. All seven items in fair condition, on aged paper, with some rust spotting from a paperclip. The book referred to is 'Roumania, Yesterday and Today' (1918), which has an introduction and two chapters by the Queen of Romania. ONE: Gordon's letter to Barwick. 24 June 1912. 3pp., 8vo. She writes that she has already tried to place 'the little book' with 'Geo. Bell - Jacks - & Gay & Hancock. As to yr.

[ Eugène Ionesco, 'Theatre of the Absurd' playwright. ] Typescripts of two translations of his plays by Donald Watson: the 'original text' of 'The Bald Prima Donna. A Pseudo-Play in one act', and 'The Motor Show'.

Author: 
Eugène Ionesco (1909-1994), Franco-Romanian 'Theatre of the Absurd' playwright; Donald Watson, translator
Publication details: 
Neither translation dated, but both 'Copyright by DONALD WATSON, | 13 Oakley St., Chelsea, London.'
£300.00

Watson's translation of 'La Cantatrice Chauve' (1950) was first published in London by Calder in 1958, and his version of 'Le Salon de l'Automobile' (1951) by the same publisher in the fifth volume of Ionesco's plays in 1963. The two scripts typed in uniform style, on rectos of leaves, and stapled together. ONE: 'The Bald Prima Donna'. 19pp., 8vo. In good condition, on aged paper, with somewhat-appropriate child's markings in black ink on blank parts of first page.

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