Jack

Autograph Letter Signed ('Vera Meynell') from Lady Vera Meynell, wife of the typographer Sir Francis Meynell, to 'Dear Jack' [the anthropologist J. H. Driberg], asking him to 'let bygones be bygones' and visit her at Toppesfield, 'Hitler permitting'.

Author: 
Lady Vera Meynell [née Vera Rosalind Wynn Mendel] (1895-1947), wife of Sir Francis Meynell (1891-1975), publisher and typographer, founder of the Nonesuch Press [Jack Herbert Driberg (1888-1946)]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 39 Woburn Square, WC1 [London]. 5 July [no year, but during the Second World War].
£65.00

1p., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. The letter begins: 'Dear Jack | It is a long time since we met - but perhaps that is my fault. If so, will you let bygones be bygones - and come over to Toppesfield some time?' She suggests a date, 'Or any Sunday lunch in the immediate future', stating that 'after July, all plans are "Hitler permitting"!' Driberg has noted his acceptance of the invitation up one margin. [Driberg was a Lecturer in Anthropology at Cambridge University from 1934 to 1942. His brother was the colourful Labour MP Tom Driberg.

Typed Letter Signed ('Raglan') from Fitzroy Richard Somerset, 4th Baron Raglan [Lord Raglan] to fellow anthropologist J. H. Driberg, regarding a proposed stay at Trinity College, Cambridge.

Author: 
FitzRoy Richard Somerset (1885-1964), 4th Baron Raglan [Lord Raglan], President, Royal Anthropological Society [Jack Herbert Driberg (1888-1946), Lecturer in Anthropology, Cambridge University,1934-42
Publication details: 
On letterhead of Cefntilla Court, Usk, Monmouthshire. 11 October 1938.
£35.00

1p., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Having been 'very comfortable' at Trinity College, Cambridge, as a guest of Bernard Thomas, Raglan thinks it will be 'very pleasant' to stay there again. He gives details of his proposed itinerary, makes suggestions regarding his motor-car, and accepts an invitation to 'dine in Hall'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('E J Lindgren') from Dr Ethel John Lindgren to fellow-anthropologist J. H. Driberg, concerning a book by another author, accepted for publication by the Council of the University of Cambridge in 1904, and returned in 1928.

Author: 
Dr Ethel John Lindgren (1905-1988), anthropologist [Jack Herbert Driberg (1888-1946), Lecturer in Anthropology, Cambridge University, 1934-42; brother of Labour MP Tom Driberg (1905-76)]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 34 Causewayside, Fen Causeway, Cambridge. 8 November 1939.
£35.00

2pp., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper. She asks him if he can 'shed any light' on a book or paper (not named), 'or indicate what amount of interest it is likely to have': 'The author wrote it in 1904, added to it in 1907. Council [of the University of Cambridge] accepted it for publication in 1916. It was returned to the author, at his request, in 1928!' She could send it to Driberg, 'to look through, if you like (or rather if you are willing!)' A postscript regarding Sir E. E. Evans-Pritchard, emphatically underlined, reads: 'Is it true that E-P is married???'

Autograph Letter Signed ('Basil A. Yeaxlee') from the English educational pioneer Basil Yeaxlee [Basil Alfred Yeaxlee] to the anthropologist J. H. Driberg, regarding his difficulty in acquiring a copy of 'Island India goes to School' by E. R. Embree.

Author: 
Basil Yeaxlee [Basil Alfred Yeaxlee] (1883-1967), English pioneer in the field of adult education [Jack Herbert Driberg (1888-1946), anthropologist, brother of colourful Labour politician Tom Driberg]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 109 Woodstock Road, Oxford. 9 May 1939.
£35.00

1p., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper. He begins: 'My bookseller has sent me tonight "Island India at School" - Chicago University Press $2 [in fact 'Island India at School', E. R. Embree et al, 1934], and therefore, presumably, C.U.P. in this country.' He apologises for troubling Driberg unnecessarily: 'But yesterday they told me that they couldn't even trace it in Publishers' Catalogues.' Postscript reads: 'I hope I'm not robbing you of your proper style & title. I feel that it might be "Dr."

Field notebook compiled by J. H. Driberg, later Lecturer in Anthropology, Cambridge University, compiled while a British colonial official, and dealing with local, linguistic and other matters.

Author: 
Jack Herbert Driberg (1888-1946), Lecturer in Anthropology, Cambridge University, 1934-42; and brother of the Labour MP and gossip columnist 'William Hickey' Tom Driberg (1905-1976); Uganda; Africa]
Publication details: 
The earliest dated entry from Longarim, Uganda, 27 March 1923; and the latest from Loriya HIll, 15 January 1925.
£450.00

A significant item, written, as his biographer Roy Abrahams explains, by a man who was 'almost single-handedly responsible for keeping academic social anthropology, and one might add the place of African research within it, alive in the small Archaeology and Anthropology Department in Cambridge in those otherwise rather barren days of the 1930s'. 45pp., 12mo. In a ruled, stitched notebook without cover. Written in pencil on stained and aged paper. Some of the text is faded.

Autograph Letter Signed ('L. Homburger'), in English, from the French linguist Lilias Homburger to the Cambridge anthropologist J. H. Driberg, discussing the difficulties arising from mixing anthropology and linguistics, with reference to Africa.

Author: 
Lilias Homburger (1880-1969), French linguist, authority on African languages [Jack Herbert Driberg (1888-1946), social anthropologist]
Publication details: 
Written from 'London Tuesday [no date]', giving the French address as '98 rue de la Tour | Paris | 16e'.
£135.00

2pp., 12mo. 28 lines. In fair condition, on aged high-acidity paper. Homburger begins by thanking Driberg for his 'papers' and expressing pleasure at their meeting. He encloses 'a list [not present] of feila words (just a few typical) and a draft of my paper not complete nor absolutely definite but which will shew you that I have pretty sound basis for my ideas as to the sénégalais nilotique.' 'Great difficulties', he considers, 'have arisen [...] from mixing anthropologie [sic] & linguistics.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Christopher Sykes') from the author and aesthete Christopher Hugh Sykes to the social anthropologist J. H. Driberg, arranging a meeting in Cambridge.

Author: 
Christopher Sykes [Christopher Hugh Sykes] (1907-86), English author, biographer of Evelyn Waugh, and traveller with Robert Byron across Central Asia [Jack Herbert Driberg (1888-1946), anthropologist]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of Badlingham Manor, Chippenham, Ely, Cambridgeshire. Undated [late 1930s].
£95.00

2pp., 12mo. Very good on blue paper, with letterhead printed in red. He begins: 'I must write to tell you how very much indeed I enjoyed the course at Cambridge and particularly your lectures.

Autograph Letter Signed ('A. Powell-Cotton') from Antoinette Powell-Cotton, discussing the 'specimens from Angola' in her father Major P. H. G. Powell-Cotton's collection (the Quex Museum at Birchington) with the anthropologist J. H. Driberg.

Author: 
Antoinette Powell-Cotton (1913-1997), daughter of Major P. H. G. Powell-Cotton (1866-1940), founder of the Quex Museum, Birchington, Kent [Jack Herbert Driberg (1888-1946), social anthropologist]
Publication details: 
25 Craven Road, London, W2. 29 January [1930s].
£65.00

Antoinette (Tony) Powell-Cotton was the daughter of Major Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton (1866-1940), explorer, naturalist, founder in 1896 of the Quex Museum (the Powell-Cotton collection), at Birchington, Kent. 3pp., 12mo. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with a couple of minor damp stains to the first leaf of two. She writes that her family have just spoken to Professor Herskovits [the American anthropologist Melville Jean Herskovits (1895-1963)], 'and he gave us a message that you would like to see our specimens from Angola'.

Typescript titled 'The Last Month', signed 'Ernie Wilmott', describing the author's experiences during the last days of World War Two at Gaschwitz POW camp near Leipzig. With covering ALS from J. L. H. Batt ('Jack') and TLS to Batt from Charles

Author: 
Ernie Wilmott [J. L. H. Batt [Jack Lynden Batt] (b.1922), of 155th Battery, 172nd Field Regiment, Royal Artillery]
Publication details: 
Without place and date (1960s?). The account describes events in April and May 1945.
£300.00

13pp., foolscap 8vo. Paginated 1 to 13 and signed at the end 'Ernie Wilmott'. On seven leaves stapled into grey covers, with the title 'The Last Month' typed on the front cover. In good condition, in worn wraps. The account commences: 'There had been gun fire from the west and the south for the last three days. Friday the 13th April 1945 the usual officials did not come to fetch the men, but a little later than usual the Gaschwyz [sic] column was called, so we assembled and left for work, about 20 of us.

Signed copies of two long Typed Letters from James Agate to Montague Shearman, regarding the 'Controversy' surrounding Noel Coward's 1931 play 'Cavalcade', forwarded with two covering notes by Agate's secretary Alan 'Jock' Dent to E. F. Gye.

Author: 
James Agate (1877-1947), critic [Alan Dent [Alan 'Jock' Dent; Jock Dent] (1905-1978), journalist; Montague Shearman (1886-1940), art collector; Ernest Frederick Gye (1879-1955), diplomat; Noel Coward]
Signed copies of two long Typed Letters from James Agate
Publication details: 
The copies of Agate's letters to Shearman, 5 and 6 November 1931; Dent's notes to Gye of the same dates; all four items on letterheads of 25 Palace Court, London, W2.
£145.00
Signed copies of two long Typed Letters from James Agate

A total of 8 pp, 4to, all on Palace Court letterheads. Dent's notes both signed 'Jock Dent.', and the copies both signed 'James Agate'. Two important, energetic and vivid letters by Agate, totalling 6 pp, 4to, defending Coward's play and his position on 'the intellectual and the popular', against the 'pseudo-intelligentsia' of the barristers Shearman and 'Jack' St John Hutchinson (1884-1942).

[Second volume in series 'George Cruikshank's Fairy Library'.] The History of Jack & the Bean-Stalk | Edited and illustrated with six etchings by George Cruikshank.

Author: 
George Cruikshank [David Bogue]
The History of Jack & the Bean-Stalk
Publication details: 
[First edition of 1853.] London: David Bogue, 86 Fleet Street. ['LONDON: Printed by G. Barclay, Castle St. Leicester Sq.]
£125.00
The History of Jack & the Bean-Stalk

8vo, 32 pp. All eight illustrations on six plates present as called for in list on verso of fly-leaf. In original green card wraps, ornately illustrated on cover, which has at its head, 'GEORGE CRUIKSHANK'S | FAIRY LIBRARY'; and at its foot, 'PUBLISHED BY | D BOGUE 86 FLEET St. | PRICE ONE SHILLING'. On back cover: 'ALREADY PUBLISHED, | HOP O'MY THUMB AND THE SEVEN LEAGUE BOOTS, | ILLUSTRATED WITH SIX PLATES, CONTAINING NINE SUBJECTS, | BEING | No. 1 OF GEORGE CRUIKSHANK'S FAIRY LIBRARY. | Preparing for Publication, | No. III. | CINDERELLA AND THE GLASS SLIPPER.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Edmund C. Stedman') from the American man of letters Edmund Clarence Stedman to the Blackburn poet John Thomas Baron ('Jack O'Anns')

Author: 
Edmund Clarence Stedman (1833-1908), American poet, critic and essayist [John Thomas Baron (1856-1922), Blackburn dialect poet, writing under the pseudonym 'Jack O'Anns']
Publication details: 
31 January 1883; on letterhead of 71 West 54th Street, New York.
£350.00

12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. Forty-eight lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on aged paper. Begins 'One must needs be a churl indeed to be a laggard in his response to a letter containing words of so sweet breath composed as yours!' He thanks Baron for his 'kind & encouraging letter', and considers that an author 'has no keener or more lawful pleasure than to find that the errors of his song or tale has [sic] lodged (as Longfellow says) in the heart of some far-off and unknown friend'.

[Printed handbill.] New Version of the House that Jack Built. [Parallel texts, with the 'old version' in one column, and the 'new version', in circumfluous language, in another.]

Author: 
[Victorian parody of 'The House that Jack Built']
Victorian parody of 'The House that Jack Built']
Publication details: 
[Without date or place.] [Late Victorian?]
£125.00
Victorian parody of 'The House that Jack Built']

8vo, 1 p. Text clear and complete. Fair, on thin aged paper, laid down on a sheet of backing. In small type, with the 'old version' of the nursery rhyme, in the left hand column, transformed into a 'new version' of 78 lines of prose in the right-hand column. The first line - 'This is the house that Jack built' - is changed into 'This is the domiciliary edifice erected by John.' The 'priest all shaven and shorn' becomes 'the ecclesiastical gentleman, the summit of whose pericranium was denuded of its natural covering'. Scarce: no copy in the British Library or on COPAC.

[Printed handbill libretto.] The House that Jack built. A Nursery Cantata. With Solos, Choruses, and Incidental Music, Composed expressly for the Royal Aquarium, by Mr. George Fox. The Juvenile Troupe, Under the Direction of Mr. J. E. Nolan.

Author: 
George Fox [The Juvenile Troupe; J. E. Nolan; The Royal Aquarium and Winter Garden, London; Hutchins & Romer, Conduit Street]
The House that Jack built. A Nursery Cantata
Publication details: 
[Circa 1880.] 'The Music Published by Messrs Hutchins & Romer, Conduit Street, Regent Street'.
£56.00
The House that Jack built. A Nursery Cantata

Small 4to, 4 pp. Bifolium. Text clear and complete. Fair, on browned high-acidity paper. Neat strip of stub from mounting in album still adhering to inner margin of verso of second leaf. Headed 'Words.' All but first chorus in double-column. A mixture of the original 'House that Jack built' with 'Jack and Jill'. Begins with 'Chorus. - "This is the house that Jack built."', the first lines of which are 'Our labours are done, our recompense won, | And anger has been on no back spilt, | So now with one voice we'll laugh and rejoice | As this is the house that Jack built.' Characters are: Mr.

A Broadside for July, 1911. [No. 2. Fourth Year] ['Blow, Bullies, Blow (Halliards Chanty)' with three illustrations by Jack B. Yeats.]

Author: 
Jack B. Yeats; Cuala Press
Publication details: 
1911. E.C. Yeats at the Cuala Press, Churchtown, Dundrum, County Dublin.
£100.00

4to bifolium (27.5 x 18.5 cm): 3 pp. 300 copies only. In fair condition: a little grubby, with a couple of light folds and slight wear to extremities. Hand-coloured illustrations on first (7.5 cm square) and second (7 x 10 cm) pages; full-page black and white illustration ('Derby Day') on third page. Final page blank.

A Broadside for March, 1914. [No. 10. Sixth Year] [the poems 'Nora Creina' and 'The Tan-Yard Side' with three illustrations by Yeats.]

Author: 
Jack B. Yeats; Cuala Press
Publication details: 
1914. By E. C. Yeats at the Cuala Press, Churchtown, Dundrum, County Dublin.
£100.00

4to bifolium (27.5 x 18.5 cm): 3 pp. 300 copies only. Good, on aged paper with a light vertical fold. Hand-coloured illustrations on first (7.5 x 10 cm) and second (9.5 x 7.5 cm) pages; full-page black and white illustration ('The Metropolitan Regatta Dublin') on third page. Final page blank.

A Broadside for February, 1914. [No. 9. Sixth Year] [Hyde's poem 'I shall not die for thee' and Guthrie's poem 'Paternoster Callaghan' with three illustrations by Yeats.]

Author: 
Jack B. Yeats; James Guthrie; Douglas Hyde; Cuala Press
Publication details: 
1914. By E.C. Yeats at the Cuala Press, Churchtown, Dundrum, County Dublin.
£200.00

4to bifolium (27.5 x 18.5 cm): 3 pp. 300 copies only. Good, on aged paper with a light vertical fold. Hand-coloured illustrations on first (7 x 10 cm) and second (8 x 7.5 cm) pages; black and white illustration ('Drowned Sailor', 12 x 10 cm) alone on third page. Final page blank. The first poem is not ascribed, but is known to be by Hyde.

The Autograph Signatures of the members of the Hedley Ward Trio.

Author: 
The Hedley Ward Trio: Jack Mckechnie, guitar; Derek Franklin, bass; Bob Carter, piano [English jazz musicians' autographs]
Publication details: 
Undated.
£200.00

On a leaf of blue paper (roughly 11 x 14 cm), removed from an autograph album. Good: lightly aged and spotted. Reads 'With best wishes The Hedley Ward Trio | Jack Mckechnie | Derek Franklin | Bob Carter'. Docketed, presumably by the recipient, with the members' instruments. Hedley Ward was one of the foremost British bandleaders of the 30s, 40s and 50s, and his Trio featured in many radio and television broadcasts, and are still to be heard on archive programmes.

Autograph Note Signed ('J B. Hobbs') and Initialled ('JBH') to Peter Briggs.

Author: 
Sir Jack Hobbs [Sir John Berry Hobbs] (1882-1963), Surrey and England cricketer
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£45.00

On a piece of yellow paper (roughly 7.5 x 10 cm), laid down on a light-green page (roughly 14 x 8 cm) torn from an autograph album. Lightly aged and spotted, but good overall. Reads ' "Remember that if you are in the right you can afford to keep your temper. When you are in the wrong you can't afford to lose it" | [signed] J B. Hobbs.' And in a smaller hand, diagonally in the bottom right-hand corner 'Best wishes to Peter Briggs | [signed] JBH'.

Autograph Letter Signed "W. Hone" to an unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
William Hone, Radical bookseller and publisher (DNB).
Publication details: 
5 Bolt Court, 18 June 1840.
£250.00

One page, minor staining not affecting text, laid down on grey coarse paper. "Here is the Cape Shipping List [perhaps including slavers?]. It's business-like details of murders by wholesale tell the cold blooded tales of horror more effectually than eloquent language. They [leave?] & lead the mind to imagine the terrible scenes enacted with poetical power which minute detail fails to [word excised "affect"] produce. I admire this brevity - it is inoffensively offensive. / I am grateful to you, my dear Sir, for your care of my daughter - your help to the helpless.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Bob. Crosby') to 'Dear Ken' [Ken Ryan].

Author: 
Bob Crosby (1913-1993), American dixieland bandleader and vocalist, best known for his group 'Bob Crosby and the Bob Cats'
Publication details: 
New Years Eve, 1955.' On letterheads of The Aladdin Hotel, Kansas City, Missouri.
£56.00

4to, 4 pp. Good, on lightly creased paper. From the Ken Ryan collection. Long, rambling, good-humoured letter on the . 'Here it is New Years Eve and I'm at home, and being quiet. - I was tired as we have worked hard all week. - and its good to be quiet. [...] London must have been interesting during the holiday season - I hope to some day see it but when I ever will is the question I'm never to [sic] good to save money. - Next week we have the Monte Carlo Ballet. Russe. and I am looking forward to seeing it. with pleasure. I've always been so fond of ballet.'

Autograph Signature ('J B. Hobbs.').

Author: 
Jack Hobbs [Sir John Berry Hobbs, 1882-1963], English cricketer
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£18.00

On piece of paper roughly 2.5 x 5 cm. Laid down on leaf of cream paper, 8.5 x 12 cm, from an autograph album. In slightly faded blue ink, and with a crease to the bottom left-hand corner, affecting the lower loop of the 'J'.

Life of Jack Sheppard, The Notorious House and Gaol Breaker.

Author: 
Victorian Chapbook [Newcastle; Provincial Printing]
Publication details: 
Newcastle-on-Tyne: Bowman, Publisher, Nuns' Lane. Price One Penny. [Slug on verso of title: 'Bowman, Publisher, 12, Nuns' Lane, Newcastle.'] Undated [1850, or between 1865 and 1875?].
£66.00

12mo: 24 pp. Leaf dimensions: 15.5 x 9.5 cms. Unbound. Good, on aged paper with fraying to extremities and a little light staining to title. Decorative title-page with vignette. On verso of title: list of twenty-three 'Penny Histories' ('Crown 12mo. Three or upwards sent post free to any address, on receipt of stamps to the amount') and nineteen 'Penny Song Books'. Heavily worn type and loss to text at foot of three pages due to faulty imposition. According to BBTI Robert Benson Bowman was active in Newcastle from before 1826 to after 1859.

Autograph letter signed, Mary-Cecile Loge, translator, to A.P. Watt, Literary Agent

Author: 
[ Jack London ] A French Translator
Publication details: 
13/05/08
£250.00

Four pages, 8vo. She declines to translate "White Fang" because the similarity of its "most important scenes" to those in "The Call of the Wild" ("leading" Paris editors agree with her) would jeopardise sales, suggesting that compression into one third of the original length would be necessary. She remits eight guineas to be forwarded to Jack London, and makes a play for the rights to translate a new Robert Hichens novel. WITH: typed note signed, 8vo, in German, from the publishers, Ferdinand Schoningh, to A.P. Watt, 20 Nov.

My friend Henry Miller.

Author: 
Alfred Perles
Publication details: 
London: Neville Spearman, 1955.
£120.00

8vo. Pages: xi + 242. 11 plates. Good, despite one bump at head of back board. Dustwrapper good, despite fraying at head and tail of spine and show-through sellotape discolouration . Dustjacket discoloration to free endpapers. Neat inscription, presumably by Perles, in green ink on front free endpaper 'To | Jack Mitchell | from Alfred Perles | & | Henry Miller | London March, 56.'

Quo musa tendis?

Author: 
J[ames]. K[enneth]. Stephen [JACK THE RIPPER]
Publication details: 
Cambridge: Macmillan and Bowes. 1891.
£22.00

First edition. 12mo. Pages: 2 ('BIBLIOGRAPHY OF LAPSUS CALAMI.') + x + 84 + 4 pages of publishers' advertisements. Very good in original worn light-blue cloth with heavily-worn label on spine. Ownership inscription of Richard E. Benson (1892) on front free endpaper. Stephen was first put forward as Jack the Ripper in Michael Harrison's biography of Prince Albert Victor, 'Clarence' (1972).

1 Autograph Card Signed; 1 Typed Letter Signed. Both to 'Mr Wilson'.

Author: 
W. H. Shelford
Publication details: 
Card, 1 August 1929, on letterhead 'Horncastle, | Sharpthorne, | East Grinstead, | Sussex.'; letter, 27 December 1930, on letterhead 'HORNCASTLE, | SHARPTHORNE, | SUSSEX.'
£45.00

On 1 June 1935 Shelford bowled the first jack at the opening of West Hoathly Bowls Club. The card, dimensions roughly 4 inches by 5 inches, is 2 pages. The letter, 2 pages, 4to. Both somewhat grubby but in good condition. The card thanks Wilson for sending a copy of Francis Hackett's 'Henry VIII'. 'I dipped into it in the train this morning & it so <?> me that I had to skim my newspaper'. The letter begins with some Christmas chitchat, before discussing a lecture given by Shelford, a copy of which he encloses (not present).

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