SYLVIA

Henley?s poem ?Invictus?, with its conclusion ?I am the master of my fate, / I am the captain of my soul?, is one of the most popular in the English language, and has inspired individuals as diverse as Nelson Mandela and Ron Kray. See Henley?s entry in the Oxford DNB. He was a friend of both Sylvia Llewelyn Davies and J. M. Barrie, and his daughter Margaret inspired the ?Peter Pan? character ?Wendy?. 1p, 8vo. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded three times for postage. The letterhead has a thin black mourning border. Henley?s poem featured as the ?Envoy?

See the entries on Robert and Sylvia Lynd, and Clement Shorter, in the Oxford DNB. (Shorter’s first wife, the Irish nationalist poet Dora Mary Shorter (née Sigerson), had died in 1918.) Both items are in good condition, lightly aged. Both 1p, 12mo, and each folded once for postage. ONE: SL to CS, 18 January 1922. Signed 'Sylvia Lynd'. Begins: 'My dear Clement, I hear that you have a little daughter. Many many congratulations & good wishes. It is very nice to know that you are so happy.' She turns to her own family: ‘We are all well down here & very busy. Sheila & B. J.

An attractive item on four unpaginated folio pages, in a bifolium. Uncommon. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased, but not folded. Drophead title: ‘No. 8 (New Series) August 1935. / A Broadside / Editors: W. B. Yeats and F. R. Higgins; Musical Editor, Arthur Duff.

An attractive item on four unpaginated folio pages, in a bifolium. Uncommon. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased, but not folded, with small closed tear at head of first leaf. Drophead title: ‘No. 7 (New Series) July 1935. / A Broadside / Editors: W. B. Yeats and F. R. Higgins; Musical Editor, Arthur Duff.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. ‘Rambles in Ireland’ was published in 1912, with illustrations by Jack B. Yeats. On one side each of four 4to leaves of aged and worn paper. The first leaf carries a covering page on which is the typed word ‘KINSALE’; above this Lynd has written in pencil: ‘26 / Rambles in Ireland / (By Robert Lynd) / Chapter VII’. The three pages which follow carry the text: title and 21 lines on the first, and twenty-five lines apiece on the second and third.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Unsigned, but in Lynd’s hand and from the Lynd family papers. 6pp, 4to, on six leaves of ruled paper, twenty-six lines to a page. In fair condition, lightly aged, with dog-eared corners. Lynd’s handwriting is execrable, and he employs a number of abbreviations of common words, such as ‘and’, ‘the’, ‘of’. Begins: ‘[...] found expression in literature. / As I have suggested, however, it is in the art of conversation rather than the art of literature that the Irish comic spirit has found its fullest expression.

1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased. Folded once. The salutation 'Dear B. J.' and valediction 'Yours | Jack' are in Priestley's autograph; the rest is typed. Maire Lynd's letter was 'a delight surprise', Priestley being unaware that her son was 'in the film business'.

8pp., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. An interesting letter, written four months before the death of her husband. She begins: 'Dearest Sylvia - | I meant to write to you last month because I am one of those tiresome people who remember anniversaries & it was in August that you both came down to the Windermere to see us.

2pp., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. He thanks her 'for the Daily News review. Such touching appreciation, and from you, repays us for the anxiety attending the publication of the Memoir [...] This part of Sussex seems very forsaken since you & your husband left it. If you are ever near, what a pleasure a call from you would be - or a visit, if your freedom allowed it.

2pp. 8vo. In good condition, lightly-aged. Making arrangements for a visit by Lynd's daughter Maire, 'with Thomas', the following week. 'Please let Miss Maire stay as long as possible as it is a long journey - I asked Thomas if they could not stay over the 19th when Vera Moore & Antonia Butler will be playing for me in Alnwick but I am afraid he said Term began before then but anyhow I hope they will stay as long as they possible can & get some music as I believe Vera Moore comes here about the 12th -'.

The three items are in fair condition, lightly aged and creased. Totalling 7pp., 8vo. ONE: ALS. From Whiteleaf, Princes Risborough; 11 Nov. 1930. Begins 'I heard the other day of a poem of yours, that a young soldier carried about in the war, till he was killed. It was sent home with his papers, & some day I hope to have it - his own copy of it - from a friend, & to send it to you | Why tell you of this now? Because the news of your mother's death has been weighing on my mind, & I wanted to say a word, yet knew how unconsoling words can be.' TWO: ALS.

1p., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and creased. On behalf of himself and his wife Madeline he writes: 'Like everybody that knew Robert we shall miss him keenly - For me the world will be a poorer place. Words don't come easily to me to express my sorrow.'

2pp., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly aged paper. 'His gentleness was always a lenitive and an example in such a raving jungle as Fleet Street. He will be badly missed everywhere by everybody.' He concludes by lamenting that as he is leaving for Italy the following day, the present letter will have to be his 'only tribute, alas. But I hope you will read into it a lot of things difficult to write.'

Both items in fair condition, on aged and worn paper. LETTER: 2pp., 12mo. 'I really think that to know - even to begin to know - R. was not only to be aware of his rare charm and goodness, but to love him.' POEM: 1p., 12mo. Six-line poem 'To Sylvia Lynd', signed at end 'G. R. H.' Reads 'You with your grace, your glancing wit, who drew | About you all the fairest and the best, | In lucent memory outshone anew | The image of each most admirèd guest: | And here to-night, as old friends gather round, | You by that starry company still are crowned.'

1p., 4to. In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper. The letter begins: 'Never having forgotten that you once asked me "What is the sense of knowing Mrs Lynd if you don't make use of her?" I am sending you a spare set of proofs of the new book. The publishers, having made me add thousands of words to it, now tell me that it is a bit too long'. The second part of the letter refers to a visit by 'Lennox [i.e. Lennox Robinson] and his wife [...] He has just been doing June in Belfast, he has Aodh de Blacam's translation, A Saint in a Hurry!

Wolfe's four letters total 5pp., 12mo; the copy of the Gollancz letter 1p., 8vo. Item One in its original envelope, with both envelope and letter carrying closed tears, the other four items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. ONE: ALS on letterhead of the hotel Les Bergues, Geneva; 7 April 1924, with envelope, with both letter and envelope torn on opening. TWO: ALS from the Ministry of Labour, London; 24 April 1924. THREE: TLS from Montagu House, Whitehall; 24 Aug. 1926. Sending, 'in confidence, this letter that I have had from Benn's.

Both items are 2pp. 12mo, on bifoliums. Both in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. ONE: 'I was so sorry I couldn't come this afternoon - especially if he was a simple kind of American publisher. Owing to a rash fit of indulgence in Church going I had to have tea elsewhere'. TWO: Letter of condolence on the death of Robert Lynd.

1p., 4to. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. She thanks Lynd for 'one of the nicest novel articles we have had in Gerald's absence', and asks her to 'be an angel, and do something else for Viola, who is vanishing tomorrow for four or five weeks', in reviewing 'the Somerset Maugham book you wanted [...] I really think he is worth a long article to himself - 1500 words, and, if you care to, you can put in a word for Heinemann's edition of the Collected Works, which we send alongside. Mr.

4pp., 4to. In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper, with short closed tears at heads of both leaves. The recipient is not named, but the letter is from the Lynd family papers. Robert Lynd was in St Ives at the time of writing, and the letter begins: 'I'm so glad you are in such a nice place & that the children can join you there. They will love it. London gets so odious by the 15th of July. I came her e last week as I was very tired, & sick of the stuffy feeling of everything.

42pp., 12mo. In cream printed illustrated wraps printed in green. The body of the magazine is paginated 53-85, with additional pages of advertisements at the front and back, and on the inside and back of the wraps. Aged, and with a little damp damage and rust to staples. From the Lynd archive, and with a full-page photographic portrait of 'Mrs. ROBERT LYND' on p.66. For the purposes of reproduction her daughter Maire Gaster has altered 'Mrs. ROBERT' to 'Sylvia' in pencil, and written 'Courtesy of MAIRE GASTER' at the head of the page.

4pp., 4to. Fair, on lightly aged and creased paper, with a few closed tears. The letter begins: 'Dear Lynd: I have been very ill and after two months in bed and an introduction to what Marley called "the thick, sweet smell of chloroform" I have been sent down here to get better - with the word of specialist and doctor that when I am well again I shall be better than I have been for a long time. This I write because I have often thought of writing to tell you how much I relish your papers.

Both items in very good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Both letters are written in an excited, gushing style, and have the margins filled with extra text. Letter to Sylvia Lynd: 2pp., 4to. Addressed to 'Dear Mrs Lynd'.

2pp., 12mo. On bifiolium of ruled paper, with 'HIERATICA' watermark of 'J. S. & Co.' From the Lynd archive, and judging from the handwriting a youthful effort, almost-certainly dating from before Sylvia Dryhurst's marriage to Robert Lynd in 1909. In fair condition, on aged paper. In seven stanzas, the first three giving a taste of an amusing and unusual jeu d'esprit and excellent piece of Edwardian social history: '1) By some devil surely sent | Sandal hunting off I went, | And my footsteps never slowed | Till I reached the Finchley Road. | Chorus: (with fervour) Damn them ! | Damn them !

The bookplate is 3.5 x 2.5 cm, and shows a troubadour with a lute, with the initials 'M S' at the foot. It is affixed to a piece of 14 x 9 cm card. Bookplate in good condition, on aged card with one creased corner. The card carries the message in pencil by Shaw: 'Mrs. & Mr. Dryhurst.

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper. Signed 'A R. Dryhurst'. The document begins: 'I am desired by the Committee to inform you that they have resolved to print the speeches revised by himself, which Mr. Gladstone delivered at the beginning and end of the debate on the Eastern Question.' The terms are then given, 'With the view of securing for them, the widest possible circulation'.

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?

Poet and critic (born 1929), friend of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, now best known as a poker player. In good condition. On one side each of 3 4to pages, neatly stapled to a piece of card. '[...] concerning a work at present entitled: | THE IRON CURTAIN SPY | Edited and compiled | by | Al Alvarez | [...]'. The authors name corrected by him in manuscript from 'Al' to 'A.' The first two pages initialled by Alvarez and the last page signed by him.