Four Autograph Letters Signed and three Typed Letters Signed to Hugh Massingham, journalist and writer, about articles commissioned, his past, his novels and method of working.

Author: 
William Gerhardie (1895–1977), Anglo-Russian novelist and playwright.
Publication details: 
1967-1971.
£450.00
SKU: 10757

Total 19pp., 16mo-8vo, fold marks, slightly crupled but text clear and complete. (5 March 1967) he suggests a poignant and dramatic article on the abdication of the last Tsar, or an eye-witness account of the Russian Revolution (50th Anniversary), saying that he was in the British Emabassy at Petrograd - which he should have gathered from his novel Futility, adding there can't be many eye-witnesses of both [underlined] Revolutions aive today. He expalins in a postscript his reversion to an earlier ancestral spelling of his name, with 'e' added as in Shakespeare, Dante, etc. (4 April 1967) He responds enthusiastically and facetiously to a suggestion for articles, saying I once wrote a commissioned article 'Mr Gerhardie Goes to the Opera' without altering a single word after I'd gone. He suggests meeting at his flat, currently a shambles undergoing spring-cledaning. (9 April 1967) He arranges a meeting. (5 May 1967) He apologises, describing Massingham as his new Maecenas and accepting his offer. He mentyions something casting a shadow, that he was advised by Arnold Bennett to part with the British Serial Rights alone. But suppose we adher to the wording of R.S. Thackeray in respect of my article 'When the Tsar's Hour Struck' ... summarising terms on rights. He discusses his activity, preparation for an article on the subject of Father and Son or Father and Parents, for which I intended as a motto-theme for my tetralogy of novels in in progress. He asks if he should continue preparing to entertain new ideas. (21 July 1967, 8pp., 16mo) He's making notes and other preaprations for a very vivid, unusual, rich article. He's also making notes for a second article as yet not commissioned , considering the Consequences of the Bolshevik Revolution as it affects the Western World. He's also making notes for a third article, Father and Son. He expresses his pleasure in the work. He wonders if Massingham has approached an American publisher to reprint my biographical history - the Romanoffs [underlined] before I can produce a copy. Publishers, Panther, are stting on his only copy. My stage play Rasputin [undeerlined) is being televised ... and he is appearing in a TV interview recounting my ex periences in the Russian Revolution. (16 January 1969) He thinks Payment without publication is insult without injury., apparwently in reroach foe some treatment meted out by a Sunday newspaper. A writer puts lot of work in (making notes etc), I should have thought that a highly personal article from the most neglected writer of his time, who had mett everybody, was what you really wanted? (2 July 1971) He had suggested that Massingham who expressed tender feelings for 'Futility' might like to review it. But he didn't tell Gerhadie when he actually did so. He's upset He tells of a Swedish Ph.D. in his novel, other interest in 'Futility' and 'Polyglots' (eg Anthony Powell, who criticised Edith Wharton's liing fro 'Futility'). He's not quite coherent.~450~FUTILITY POLYGLOTS RUSSIAN ANGLO RUSSIAN NOVEL NOVELIST RASPUTIN BOLSHEVIKS TSAR RUSSIAN REVOLTION~ ~0~OL35~ ~ ~ ~ ~