[ Naomi Jacob, author and actress. ] Two Typed Letters Signed (both 'Mickie') to W. Macqueen-Pope, on subjects including Ellen Terry, Bernard Shaw and Teddy Knox of the Crazy Gang's 'Nervo and Knox'.

Two chatty and characteristic letters. ONE: 15 July [1953]. 2pp., 4to. On aged paper, with wear to edges and vertical closed tear at foot. She begins by praising his books 'Ladies First' (1952) and 'Shirtfronts and Sables' (1953), adding in an autograph note 'Yes I bought them when in London.' The first contains 'that wonderfully beautiful tribute to Ellen Terry. I don't know when I have read anything which moved me so deeply, you rose to great heights when you wrote that. You are beginning to run James Agate very close on my shelves'. She next turns to her books on Henry Irving and Ellen Terry: 'Did you read the Shaw-Terrty letters - [autograph note: 'Of course you did!'] they sent my blood pressure mounting sky high - his at least. What a stupid wind bag of a man, and how charming her letters were to him. It was the same with Mrs Patrick Campbell's letter to him and from him.' The rest of the letter contains references to 'dear Seymour Hicks', 'adorable Ella', and a trip on her birthday 'to Asolo where Duse lived': 'Oh, what a sad town, and the saddest of all the room in the little museum filled with her belongings - some photographs, one signed one of Ibsen looking furious with the world in general, some books, a few bits of rather paltry jewellry, and some dresses and shoes. There was the inevitable intense letter written by that cad d'Annunczio [sic] in his sprawling self satisfied writing'. She ends with an apology for 'this over long and - no doubt - badly spelt - letter', and with remembrances to 'Mrs "Mac.Pope"'. TWO: 5 August 1953. 1p., 4to. On aged paper, creased and with fraying along one edge. She is using the abbreviation to him that she also sends 'to Yvonne Arnaud and Julia Neilson': '"T.R.N.A." - in other words, this requires no answer'. She thanks him for information on 'the mirror act' which she saw 'years and years ago at the Middlesbrough Empire and the name on the bill was "The Wylie Brothers"'. She is pleased that 'Teddy Knox' remembers her: 'The last time I saw him was in Rome when I think he was bored stiff with St. Peters but full of admiration for the "Wedding Cake"'. She prefers Knox's wife [Clarice Mayne] to him and discusses the film that was to be made about her life.