NEW

St John Hankin [St. John Emile Clavering Hankin, Edwardian ?New Drama? playwright.] Two Autograph Letter Signed to actor-manager Otho Stuart, one asking to read him a ?new play?, the other asking for the return of a script.

Author: 
St John Hankin [St. John Emile Clavering Hankin (1869-1909)], Edwardian playwright and essayist, follower of Bernard Shaw and exponent of the ?New Drama? [Otho Stuart (1863-1930), actor-manage]
Publication details: 
ONE: 2 November 1906; on letterhead of the Savile Club, 107 Piccadilly, W. [London] TWO: 2 February 1908; 30 Brechin Place, S.W. [London]
£80.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Stuart was at the time actor-manager of the Adelphi Theatre, London. Both items in good condition, lightly aged, and folded for postage. ONE: 3pp, 12mo (the third page carrying a postscript written lengthwise). Bifolium. Begins: ?Dear Sir / I have a new play which I should like to read to you if you would care to hear it.

St John Hankin [St. John Emile Clavering Hankin, Edwardian ?New Drama? playwright.] Autograph Letter Signed to Alexander Louis Teixeira de Mattos

Author: 
St John Hankin [St. John Emile Clavering Hankin (1869-1909)], Edwardian playwright, follower of Bernard Shaw and exponent of ?New Drama? [Alexander Louis Teixeira de Mattos (1865-1921). See Wikipedia]
Publication details: 
10 June [1897]; from Stratford-on-Avon, on cancelled letterhead of 11 Addison Road, Bedford Park [London].
£75.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper, with rusting from a paperclip to both leaves. Addressed to 'Mr Texeira [sic] de Mattos' and signed 'S John E. C. Hankin'. He thanks him for the cheque and is sorry to hear that the recipient's 'great project has come to nought - at least for the moment'. He expects that de Mattos saw 'the Bankruptcy of the New Saturday duly chronicled? You were a true prophet. I gather it will pay nothing in the ?'. The New Saturday was a short-lived newspaper, going to the wall after a few issues in 1897.

[Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer, diplomat and brother of novelist Lord Lytton.] Autograph Letter Signed to assistant of New Bond Street bookseller John Andrews, disputing the account and describing another mistake.

Author: 
Sir Henry Bulwer [William Henry Lytton Earle Bulwer, 1st Baron Dalling and Bulwer] (1801-1872), Liberal politician, British Ambassador to United States and other countries [John Andrews, bookseller]
Publication details: 
No date or place, but certainly after February 1839, and from the smudged postmark apparently 1842. From France?
£60.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. (BBTI has John Andrews with bookshop and circulating library at 167 New Bond Street from before 1831 to 1857.) 2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. Extracted from an album, and with the gutter strengthened with archival tape. Otherwise in fair condition, lightly aged and worn. As a piece of business correspondence has a spike hole through the centre of both leaves, unfortunately also through the ?H? of the signature ?H L Bulmer?, which is little more than a scrawl, with corkscrew paraphe.

[Alaric Watts [Alaric Alexander Watts], poet and journalist, editor of the ‘Literary Souvenir’.] Autograph Letter Signed to 'Mr Wauchope', assistant to the Bond Street bookseller John Andrews

Author: 
Alaric Watts [Alaric Alexander Watts] (1797-1864), poet and journalist, editor of the ‘Literary Souvenir’
Publication details: 
No date or place.
£50.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. (BBTI has John Andrews with bookshop and circulating library at 167 New Bond Street from before 1831 to 1857.) 1p, 12mo. Addressed on reverse of second leaf for delivery by hand ('wait') to 'Mr Wauchope / at Mr Andrews' / 167. New Bond St.'. In good condition, lightly aged, with unobtrusive central spike hole (for business correspondence) through both leaves. Reads: 'Dear Sir / Be so good as send me the vouchers of the Scrivener for 1827 agreeably with your promise, is there particular occasion for them today'.

[ Peter de Rome, 'Grandfather of Gay Porn'. ] Eight Letters (five in Autograph, three Typed), seven of them signed ('Peter.' and 'P.') to costume designer Ivan Alderman.

Author: 
Peter de Rome (1924-2014), homosexual filmmaker, called 'Grandfather of Gay Porn' [ Ivan Alderman (d.2003), costume designer ]
Publication details: 
Four from 1986-1987, on letterheads of the Paramount Pictures Corporation, New York. The others from New York, 1997-1998, the last two with his monogram letterhead.
£450.00

The eight letters total 10pp., 4to., of which 3pp. are typed and 7pp. in autograph. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. De Rome's reputation was enlarged towards the end of his life, with the British Film Institute mounting a thrusting retrospective season, with an accompanying DVD and a penetrating documentary by David McGillivray, 'Peter de Rome: The Grandfather of Gay Porn' (2007). For more information on Alderman, who acted in de Rome's films 'Scopo' (1966) and 'The Second Coming' (1970), and who had been J. R.

[Robert Torrens; South Australia; Torrens River; economist] Autograph Letter Signed Robt Torrens to Edwd Wakefield (foundation of S.Australia - see note below) about presenting his An Essay on the External Corn Trade (Hatchard. 1815.)'

Author: 
Robert Torrens FRS (1780 – 1864), Royal Marines officer, political economist, part-owner of the influential Globe newspaper, and a prolific writer [also see notes involving South Australia below]
Torrens
Publication details: 
61 Wells Street, Oxford Street, 30 June 1815
£600.00
Torrens

Note: a. He also chaired the board of the London-based South Australian Colonisation Commission created by the South Australia Act 1834 to oversee the new colony of South Australia. He also chaired the board of the London-based South Australian Colonisation Commission created by the South Australia Act 1834 to oversee the new colony of South Australia, before the colony went bankrupt and he was sacked in 1841.

[Heinz Berggruen, German and American art dealer, with a renowned private collection of twentieth century masters.] Typed Letter Signed to London printseller Robert Erskine, regarding prints he has ‘set aside’ for him.

Author: 
Heinz Berggruen (1914-2007), German and American art dealer, with a renowned private collection of twentieth-century masters [Robert Erskine, London printseller]
Publication details: 
10 May 1954; Paris. On letterhead of Berggruen & Cie, ‘gravures originales modernes’.
£56.00

Berggruen was awarded the French Legion of Honour and the German Order of Merit. Among those attending his funeral were German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Horst Köhler. One of his sons is the US billionaire investor and philanthropist Nicholas Berggruen. In the year this letter was sent Erskine opened his influential St Georges Gallery Prints off Cork Street. 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, but with slight damage and creasing at the centre of the right-hand margin. Highly stylized signature, ‘Heinz Berggruen’. Folded once for postage. Reads: ‘Dear Mr.

[Aylmer Bourke Lambert, disgtinguished botanist, vice-president of the Linnaean Society of London.] Autograph Letter Signed to ?Captn. Ross? [the future Sir James Clark Ross], asking him to show his drawings to the King and Queen of New Zealand..

Author: 
Aylmer Bourke Lambert (1761-1842), distinguished English botanist, vice-president of the Linnean Society of London [Sir James Clark Ross (1800-1862), Antarctic explorer]
Publication details: 
?Friday Eveng. 4th. April [no year or place].?
£50.00

See his entry, and that of Ross, in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo, on first leaf of bifolium. Aged and worn, with small sections torn away at top corners, damaging the first letter of the text. Addressed on reverse of second leaf to ?Captn. Ross.? Neatly written in an elegant hand with a good firm signature. Unusually punctuated. The letter presumably relates to botanical illustrations made during Ross?s Antarctic explorations, from 1839 onwards. Reads: ?My Dear Sir / There are some friends of mine Lord Mountnorris & his Sister & The King & Queen of New Zealand.

[Walter Bache, English pianist and conductor who championed Liszt and the New German School.] Autograph Card Signed to ‘Mrs. Lewis’, gracefully declining a invitation.

Author: 
Walter Bache (1842-1888), English pianist and conductor who championed Liszt and the New German School
Publication details: 
11 June [no year]. With letterhead of 17 Eastbourne Terrace, Hyde Park, W. [London]
£50.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, lightly aged, but with unobtrusive part of paper mount still adhering to one corner. Good bold signature ‘Walter Bache’. Reads: ‘Dear Mrs. Lewis / It is most kind of you to keep me still in your remembrance! I am teaching every day & all day - alas! & Friday is just my afternoon at the Academy. So I cannot possibly accept your most welcome invitation, for which please accept my best thanks.’

[The Fall of Fort Bowyer to the British, following the Battle of New Orleans, 1815.] Contemporary Manuscript Copy of Autograph Despatch from Major John Lambert to Earl Bathurst, describing the action.

Author: 
Sir John Lambert (1772-1847), British Army general in the Napoleonic Wars [Henry Bathurst (1762-1834), 3rd Earl Bathurst; Battle of New Orleans and Fall of Fort Bowyer, 1815]
Publication details: 
'Head Quarters Isle Dauphine | February 14th. 1815.' [On paper with Golding & Snelgrove watermark dated 1811.]
£450.00

3pp, foolscap 8vo. On laid paper with watermark: 'GOLDING | & | SNELGROVE | 1811'. Aged and worn, with closed tears along folds, but with text complete and clear. The document includes two passages written in red ink which has faded but is still legible. The background to the present letter is given in Lambert's entry in the Oxford DNB: 'On 4 June 1813 Lambert was promoted major-general, and was appointed to a brigade of the 6th division. [?] Having been sent to America, he joined the army under Sir Edward Pakenham below New Orleans on 6 January 1815, with the 7th and 43rd foot regiments.

['Scotland's greatest nineteenth-century churchman': Thomas Chalmers, Professor of Theology, economist, leader of both the Church and Free Church of Scotland.] Autograph Memorandum on church extension, for Thomas Henry Lister.

Author: 
Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847), 'Scotland's greatest nineteenth-century churchman', Professor of Theology, economist, leader of the Church of Scotland and Free Church of Scotland [Thomas Henry Lister]
Publication details: 
[24 February 1836.]
£80.00

A document of some historical significance.

[William Harrison Ainsworth, Victorian historical novelist and close friend of Charles Dickens.] Autograph Letter Signed, as editor of the New Monthly Magazine [to Alexander William Kinglake], discussing a manuscript article on a 'Russian Tour'.

Author: 
W. Harrison Ainsworth [William Harrison Ainsworth] (1805-1882), Victorian historical novelist and close friend of Charles Dickens [Alexander William Kinglake (1809-1891), author of 'Eothen']
William Harrison Ainsworth
Publication details: 
'Kensal Manor House / Harrow Road. / May 19th. 1846.'
£180.00
William Harrison Ainsworth

The subject of this article is discussed by William M. Johnston, in his article ‘William Kinglake’s “A Summer in Russia”: A Neglected Memoir of Saint Petersburgh in 1845’ (TSLL, Spring 1967). The memoir was published anonymously by Ainsworth in the New Monthly Magazine, of which he was editor and proprietor, in three parts, but a German translation in the same year revealed Kinglake’s identity. See the entries for Ainsworth and Kinglake in the Oxford DNB. An interesting letter, casting light on Victorian journalistic practices. 4pp, 12mo. Forty lines of text. On a bifolium.

[American shipbuilding, Massachusetts, 1866.] Manuscript ‘Contract for building a Schooner’ between William Greenleaf Blackler of New Bedford and six Fairhaven carpenters, with all their signatures and that of witness Moses H. Delano.

Author: 
American Shipbuilding, New Bedford and Fairhaven, Massachusetts, 1866; William Greenleaf Blackler; Ebenezer Bryden; Benjamin Westgate; George F. Eldred; Charles H. Coombs; Moses H. Delano
Publication details: 
[Fairhaven, Massachusetts, United States of America.] ‘made this day March 20th 1866’.
£220.00

Blackler’s papers are in the New Bedford Whaling Museum. 4pp, foolscap 8vo. Eighty lines of text, with last page written crosswise. On wove paper with stationer’s embossed mark. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper with light staining at edges. Text clear and entire. Begins: ‘Contract for building a Schooner made this day March 20th 1866 by and between Wm G.

[‘The most fashionable place in London’: The Clarendon Hotel, Bond Street; Foreign 'Great and Good@] Around 180 entries in the hotel guestbook, on extracted leaves, the greater part of them signatures of ‘Nobility and Gentry, and Foreigners of rank’.

Author: 
‘The most fashionable place in London’: The Clarendon Hotel, Bond Street [Georgian England]
Publication details: 
The Clarendon Hotel, Bond Street, London. The entries all said to date from 1831.
£1,200.00

The Clarendon Hotel was once - as ‘Routledge’s Popular Guide to London’ stated in 1862 - ‘the most fashionable place in London’, and the present collection of autograph signatures from its guestbook, all of them said to date from 1831, bear witness to the fact that - as ‘Gilbert’s Visitor’s Guide to London’ (1851) states - it was ‘frequented by the Nobility and Gentry, and Foreigners of rank’. Its reputation had been made during the Regency period, and in 1820 ‘Leigh’s New Picture of London’ stated that it ‘and Jaquiers are now one hotel’.

[Oxford University and Captain Henry Worsley Hill, Lieutenant Governor of the Gold Coast.] Copy by Hill of College of Arms pedigree showing his family’s consanguinity with William of Wickham and Nicholas Wadham. With ALS to the warden of New College.

Author: 
Captain Henry Worsley Hill (1799-1868), Royal Navy, first 'proper' Lieutenant Governor of the Gold Coast [William of Wickham; Nicholas Wadham; New College, Oxford; College of Arms, London]
Publication details: 
Hill’s letter dated 22 July 1850, from 3 Carlton Crescent, Southampton. The pedigree copied by Hill from the original made by the College of Arms, London, and dated 24 November 1845.
£320.00

Captain Hill was the son of Vice-Admiral Henry Hill (1775–1849). In 1845 Captain Hill married Amelia Jane Boyce (1821–1895), granddaughter of the Duke of Marlborough, with whom he had ten children. Hill’s letter is written on the back of the pedigree, and addressed to ‘The Revd / The Warden / New College / Oxford’. It reads: ‘Mr. Warden, / I have the honour of transmitting herewith for your information the Copy of a Pedigree which I have received from the Heralds Office shewing the consanguinity of my Family to William of Wickham the Founder of New College Oxford and of the College of St.

Samuell's Guide: How to know Sydney. Illustrated. Maps of Sydney, the harbour, the suburbs. Fishing resorts, masonic, shooting information, carriage drives, telegraphic code, &c. &c.

Author: 
H. J. Samuell's Guide to Sydney, 1897.
Publication details: 
Printed by McCarron, Stewart & Co., for the Samuell Publishing Company, Sydney, N.S.W. [New South Wales], 1897.
£225.00

16mo (13.5 x 10.5 cm), 288 pp. In original black and red printed wraps, illustrated on front with illustrations relating to the city. Fold-out 'Map of Sydney' (26 x 38 cm) in black and grey, with advertisements on reverse. Lacking the fold-out map which should be present on a stub between pp 124 and 125. Good, a little aged with slight staining at foot of first leaf. In worn and stained wraps, becoming detached from book at front. Ownership inscription of 'U Reynell 1895' in pencil on front wrap. Advertisements throughout. Numerous photographic illustrations.

[Sir John Gielgud, distinguished English actor.] Autograph Letter Signed to 'Mrs. Doubleday', wife of the publisher.

Author: 
Sir John Gielgud [Arthur John Gielgud] (1904-2000), distinguished English actor [Florence Van Wyck Doubleday, wife of New York publisher Frank Nelson Doubleday]
Publication details: 
27 October [1936]. 59 East 56th Street, New York City.
£80.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. On grey paper. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded once for postage. The year is given in pencil, and a note in the same hand identifies the recipient as ‘Mrs Florence Doubleday (wife of publisher) in Oyster Bay’. Ten lines of text, in a close hand, with larger, firm signature ‘John Gielgud.’ A somewhat pompous missive. He thanks her for giving him ‘so delightful an opportunity of meeting you, and to ask me to stay in your charming house and meet your friends, who were all so nice to me’.

[‘A Classic Bush Doctor’: Felix Paul Bartlett, Australian surgeon at Cowra, New South Wales.] Two Autograph Letters Signed to ‘Mr D’Eath’, one giving news of his surgery and mutual friends, the other describing ‘poor Walkers sudden death’.

Author: 
Felix Paul Bartlett (1855-1944), Australian ‘Bush Doctor’ at Cowra, New South Wales
Publication details: 
23 March and 11 May 1890. Both from Cowra, New South Wales, Australia.
£180.00

Interesting items, casting light on the life of an Australian rural doctor of the Victorian period. A selection of Bartlett’s memoirs was published under the title ‘Bush Doctor’, edited by Jane Caiger-Smith and Michael C Bartlett, in 2011. There is an good illustrated article on him and his family (‘A Classic Bush Doctor’) in ‘Australian Rural Doctor’, June 2013. Both letters are addressed to ‘Dear Mr. D’Eath’ and signed ‘Felix P. Bartlett’.

[Rochester, New York State.] Manuscript ‘Arbitration Bond’, with ‘the very rare signature of Everard Peck, pioneer printer Father of Wm. F. Peck’ and that of Walter S. Griffith.

Author: 
Everard Peck (1791-1854), Rochester printer, newspaper editor, father of the historian William Farley Peck (1840-1908); Walter S. Griffith (c.1810-1872) [Lewis Selze; Monroe County, New York State]
Publication details: 
No date [1860s or 1870s?]. [Rochester, Monroe County, New York State.]
£320.00

Accompanying this item is a piece of paper with the following note in a mid-twentieth-century hand: ‘Interesting because of the very rare signature of Everard Peck, pioneer printer Father of Wm. F. Peck’. He was a bookbinder from Connecticut who moved to Rochester around 1816 and opened a bookstore. He moved into printing and publishing, founded the successful weekly Telegraph newspaper and later became a banker. He was a generous benefactor of the early city, co-founding the University of Rochester and the Rochester Orphan Asylum and becoming a leader in the Female Charitable Society.

[Harkness Fellowships.] Five Typed Letters Signed and one Autograph Letter Signed from Lansing V. Hammond of the Commonwealth Fund to Mark Bonham Carter, discussing the organization, cultural matters and death of his father William Churchill Hammond.

Author: 
[Harkness Fellowships] Lansing V. Hammond of the Commonwealth Fund of New York City [his father William Churchill Hammond (1860-1949), organist and choir master; Mark Bonham Carter (1922-1994)]
Publication details: 
ONE (ALS): 10 January 1948; on letterhead of the Hotel Durant, Berkeley. TWO to SIX (TLsS): 29 December 1948; 18 February, 9 June and 8 July 1949; 3 May 1950; all on letterhead of The Commonwealth Fund, 41 East Fifty-seventh Street, New York 22, N.Y.
£280.00

Lansing Van der Heyden Hammond (b.1906), son of the distinguished organist and choirmaster of Mount Holyoake College William Churchill Hammond, was for many years Director of the Commonwealth Fund Division of International Fellowships. For Bonham Carter, see his entry in the Oxford DNB. The present group of six items shed light on the 1940s administration of the Commonwealth Fund. They are in good condition, lightly aged and creased. The autograph letter is 1p, 12mo; the five single-spaced typed letters total 6pp, 4to. All six are signed ‘Lance’. ONE: ALS, 10 January 1948. 1p, 12mo.

[West Indian Slave Trade; rum; sugar.] Eighteen manuscript documents (most from Lewis Simond & Co, New York Merchants) regarding slave trader and Jamaican plantation owner William Atherton and his Green Park Estate in Trelawny Parish.

Author: 
West Indian Slave Trade: William Atherton (Wikipedia) (1742-1803), slave trader & owner of Jamaican sugar plantations, including the Green Park Estate in Trelawny Parish [Lewis Simond, NY merchants]
Publication details: 
One item from 1777, from Bounty Hall Estate, Jamaica; three items from London, 1800 and 1801; fourteen items from New York [Lewis Simond & Co.], 1803 and 1804.
£1,500.00

All 18 items are in very good condition, with slight signs of age and wear. Items One and Eighteen are letters (Eighteen being a ‘triplicate’), the other sixteen items are accounts, with items Five to Eighteen relating to the firm of the New York merchant Lewis Simond. Items Seven, Nine and Twelve are copies (i.e. written out afresh but containing the same text) of Items Six, Eight and Eleven. ONE: Henry Hough (overseer of the Bounty Hall estate, Jamaica) to ‘William Fairclough / Green Park’: Autograph Letter Signed.

[David Low, English cartoonist, born in New Zealand.] Printed christmas card ‘from Mr. and Mrs. David Low’, illustrated with a cartoon by him of a dog caught ripping up a christmas card.

Author: 
David Low [Sir David Alexander Cecil Low] (1891-1963), English political cartoonist, born in New Zealand
Low
Publication details: 
No date. ‘25, Helenslea Avenue, / N. W. 11. [London]’
£80.00
Low

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The present item is a nice piece of printed ephemera relating to the man described in his Guardian obituary as ‘the dominant cartoonist of the western world’. In 1937 Goebbels had told Lord Halifax that Low’s cartoons were harming Anglo-German relations, and after the war it was revealed that his name was in the ‘black book’ of individuals to be ‘liquidated’ on German conquest of Britain. In good condition, lightly aged.Small 4to bifolium printed in brown ink on thick wove paper.

[Book & ALSs] Frederick James Furnivall. A Volume of Personal Record. WITH: TWO Autograph Letters Signed F.J.F.

Author: 
John Munro and others (G.B. Shaw, May Morrris, Alfred Pollard, etc. etc.)
Publication details: 
Henry Frowde, Oxford University Press, London, 1911.
£165.00

Short Biography by John Munro.Frederick James Furnivall A Volume of Personal Record with List of SubscribersRebound, hf-lea, rubbed, endpapers sl.

[Michael Frankael, writer associated with Henry Miller.] Printed item: leaflet advertising his various publications, with ‘Press Opinions’ including Aldous Huxley, Havelock Ellis and Henry Miller.

Author: 
Michael Fraenkel (1896-1957), avant-garde writer and proprietor of the Carrefour Press, associated with Henry Miller
Publication details: 
No date [early 1940s]. Order from The Argus Book Shop, Chicago.
£50.00

6pp, 8vo: with three pages beside one another on each side of a strip that folds in on itself. In fair condition, on lightly worn and discoloured paper. Front page with ‘Michael Fraenkel’ and list of five publications: ‘Death Is Not Enough / (Essays in Active Negation) / Werther’s Younger Brother / (The Story of an Attitude) / Death In A Room / (Poems 1927-1930) / Bastard Death / (The Autobiography of an Idea) / Hamlet, Volumes I and II / with HENRY MILLER’.

[Michael Frankel, writer associated with Henry Miller.] Three printed items: prospectus for ‘Bastard Death’; leaflet advertising his publications, with press opinions and manuscript additions; invitation to a French Henry Miller exhibition.

Author: 
Michael Fraenkel (1896-1957), avant-garde writer and proprietor of the Carrefour Press, associated with Henry Miller
Publication details: 
ONE ('Bastard Death' prospectus): [1946.] Carrefour, 342 E. 19th Street, New York City. TWO (Advertisement for Fraenkel's publications): No date [early 1940s]. Order from The Argus Book Shop, Chicago. Three (Henry Miller exhibition invitation): 1994.
£180.00

ONE: Prospectus for ‘Bastard Death / The Autobiography of an Idea / By / Michael Fraenkel’. 4pp, small 4to. Bifolium leaflet with prospectus on recto of first leaf, ‘press proof’ on two central pages, and list of other works, with reviews, and order form on verso of second leaf. In fair condition, on lightly-creased browning wove paper. The prospectus begins: ‘This is an uncorrected press proof of the new limited edition of BASTARD DEATH, showing hand-set 12 point Cheltenham type, size and set-up of page, etc.

[Sir Edward Mortimer Archibald, British Consul in New York.] Autograph Signature to Manuscript document acknowledging the Albion Society of New York’s ‘Resolution of Condolence’ on the death of Princess Alice.

Author: 
Sir Edward Mortimer Archibald (1810-1884), British Consul in New York from 1857 to 1883, born in Nova Scotia [Albion Society of New York; Princess Alice]
Archibald
Publication details: 
9 January 1879; British Consulate General, New York.
£60.00
Archibald

2pp, foolscap 8vo. On grey laid paper with mourning border, brittle and lightly creased, with chipping and closed tears to edges. Addressed in Archibald’s hand to ‘The President of the Albion Society of New York’, and signed ‘E M Archibald / HM Brit Consul Genl’.

[‘King of Redonda’: John Gawsworth, English poet.] Galley proof of his poem ‘Rest’ (‘Beneath the oaks the soldiers lie’) with one minor emendation.

Author: 
John Gawsworth [pseudonym of Terence Ian Fitton Armstrong (1912-1970)], English poet, author and ‘King of Redonda’ [New English Weekly, founded in 1932 by A. R. Orage]
Redonda
Publication details: 
No date [1940s]. Stamped ‘FOR & ON BEHALF OF / THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY. / 15 REGENT’S PARK TERRACE / GULiver 3875’.
£120.00
Redonda

On one side of a 12mo a piece of grey-green paper; creased, worn and torn at the bottom. A fifteen-line poem in five three-line stanzas, titled ‘REST’. At end: ‘JOHN GAWSWORTH’. Proof directions in pencil to convert a full-stop at the end of the fourth stanza to a comma. While the poet's attempt at direct simplicity verges on triteness, one should recall that he served manfully in the RAF: ‘Beneath the oaks the soldiers lie / Staring at the open sky / Drowsily, lazily. / Like England is this plot of green / But in the mountains all unseen / The guns’ complaint affects the scene.

[James Martineau, Professor in Manchester New College, Oxford, brother of Harriet Martineau.] Autograph Letter Signed to Rev. G. E. Cheeseman, defending a paper on ‘Unitarian modes of thought’.

Author: 
James Martineau (1805-1900), Unitarian minister, Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy and Political Economy in Manchester New College, Oxford, brother of Harriet Martineau (1802-1876)
Publication details: 
31 January 1887. 35 Gordon Square, London W.C.
£35.00

See his entry, and that of his sister, in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. Fifty-eight lines of text. Signed ‘James Martineau.’ On biofolium. In good condition, lightly aged and folded twice for postage. A very good letter, filled with matter. He begins by conceding that there is ‘ground for displeasure of some of my fellow-believers’ in his ‘paper in the “Christian Reformer”: ‘that the description it gives of the Unitarian modes of thought does not invariably fit to the more recent phases of feeling & conception’.

[Henry Alford, Dean of Canterbury and biblical scholar.] Autograph Letter Signed, declaring that he knows nothing about sailors.

Author: 
Henry Alford (1810-1871), Dean of Canterbury and biblical scholar
Publication details: 
7 April 1866. No place.
£38.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 16mo. The recipient is not named. In good condition, folded for postage. Amusingly succinct. Begins: ‘Dear Sir / You could not possibly have applied to a worse person than myself about sailors. I know nothing about them, & cannot conceive what can have caused the application. / I am / dear Sir / truly yours / Henry Alford’.

[Christopher Fry breaks America, 1950-1951.] Fry’s own cuttings, with manuscript captions, largely from English and North American newspapers, many describing the success of John Gielgud’s US touring production of ‘The Lady’s Not For Burning’.

Author: 
Christopher Fry [born Arthur Hammond Harris] (1907-2005), distinguished English playwright, leading exponent of verse drama [John Gielgud]
Publication details: 
Cuttings from North American, English, European and African newspapers and magazines, dating from between 19 July 1950 and 20 July 1951.
£650.00

Long and almost universally-appreciative articles, with photographs and cartoons, reflecting the excitement and energy of the period during which Fry was, as Michael Billington writes in his entry on the playwright in the Oxford DNB, ‘a dominant figure in British drama’. Ranging from three continents, with a few articles in foreign languages (Swedish, German, French). Among the material are John Gielgud’s long statement ‘Mr. Gielgud discovers Mr. Fry’, New York Times, 5 November 1950; and Richard L. Coe, ‘ “Lady” Delights A Packed Gayety’, Washington Post, 21 March 1951.

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