Three Typed Letters Signed and one Autograph Letter Signed (all four to Mrs Cecil Roscoe), and one printed menu signed for a dinner at the House of Commons.

Author: 
Sir Henry (Harry) Ernest Brittain
Publication details: 
1921-45.
£50.00
SKU: 3564

British journalist and Conservative politician (1873-1974). The typed text is entirely legible, but the collection is in extremely poor condition - badly damp-damaged and frayed, and with much of the menu consumed by insects. ITEM ONE: TLS, 4 May 1944, 'KIRKLANDS, | HEADLEY, HANTS.', on letterhead of the Incorporated Sales Managers' Association, one page, 4to. Green-ink signature severely faded by damp. He has returned 'after a very successful three weeks' mission with Western Command'. Regarding the Jubilee Reception at Mansion House, he would like an invitation sent to Walter Hutchinson and his wife. '[A]s he published your book, ['Poems by contemporary women', compiled by T[heodora]. Roscoe and M. W. Were, [1944]] and book publishing is somewhat analogous to newspaper publishing, I think an invitation would be appropriate'. ITEM TWO: TLS, 5 May 1945, on letterhead 'KIRKLANDS, | HEADLEY, HANTS', one page, 8vo. Rust and damp staining. He thanks her for the postcard. He will do his best 'to be with you' on the 31st. He will also try and come on 12 July. 'I am not only a great admirer of Arthur Bryant but he is, as perhaps you know, a regular and most appreciated writer for our 'Illustrated London News'." ITEM THREE: TLS, 7 October 1945, on Kirklands letterhead, one page, 4to. Frayed and with damp damage. He thanks her for 'a most interesting number of The Woman Journalist' and will 'try to foregather with you at one or other of the functions'. He is glad that his 'old friend, 'A. P. H[erbert' ' is going to address them. 'I was responsible twenty-one years ago for annexng him for a trip round the world, when I went out as Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the British Press, for the Third Imperial Press Conference at Melbourne.' Can she suggest 'any school of journalism' for a 'young girl of about sixteen - who incidentally was an evacuated child to the United States for five years' 'That excellent school - of London University - presided over by my friend Tom Clarke, has not, I think, been revived'. 'John Reid, the Scottish sculptor, has just completed a very beautiful, simple, seat, as a small memorial to my dear Lady, and I hope very shortly to have it brought across from Hertfordshire and installed in Headley churchyard.' ITEM FOUR: ALS, 'Sept 8. <?>' on letterhead of the Burlington Hotel, Bournemouth, two pages, 8vo. In green ink. Severely damaged by damp, with much of the text illegible. ITEM FIVE: printed menu for a 'dinner of the British International Association of Journalists', 22 April 1921, at the House of Commons. Illustration of the Houses of Parliament. Three pages, 12mo. Signed in pencil by Brittain on blank verso of the second leaf of the bifoliate. Severe entomological affliction.