[A ‘happy and hap-hazard hedonist of etymologist’: Ivor Brown.] Autograph Letter Signed and Autograph Card Signed to V. H. Collins, the former defending his position as an ‘amateur’ rather than a ‘verbal authority’.

One could not find a better assessment by Brown of his qualities as a writer on language than the letter offered here. As his entry in the Oxford DNB notes: ‘As well as using the English language expertly, he was one of those logophiles, such as F. G. Fowler, H. W. Fowler, and Eric Partridge, who are fascinated by language itself. He became famous for his books about words, agreeable rambles around correct usage and philology, enlivened by literary allusion, quotation, wit, and personal anecdote. He wrote thirteen of these in all, collecting words as others collect porcelain.’ The recipient Vere Henry Collins (1872-1966), was an author and grammatical stickler. The two items are in fair condition, lightly aged. Both signed ‘Ivor Brown’. ONE: ALS, 24 July 1953. 4pp, 12mo. On two Observer letterheads. Folded for postage. He begins by accepting Collins’s ‘correction on honorarium’, before continuing: ‘I am not a good grammarian and constantly make slips in the use of “would” and “should”, “who” and “that” and so on. In fact, I am careless and my excuse must be that I could not get so much done in my spare time if I were more vigilant. Not a good excuse. My punctuation, too, is hap-hazard. But I simply cannot feel much worried about this, as long as the grosser mistakes are avoided.’ He continues with comments on the overuse (especially by ‘women writers’) of exclamation marks. ‘Please remember that I am an anthologist not an authority. I was never taught English carefully at school; the insistence on correctness in Latin and Greek was rigorous, but my masters never bothered about the English that I wrote, provided that it was not shockingly wrong. I have never been a teacher and for collecting the material for my Word Books oddity and beauty have been the magnets.’ He disdains the status of ‘verbal authority’, preferring to see himself as ‘an amateur in the true sense of the word [...] I shall never be Dr. Syntax or the chief mourner at a grammarian’s funeral. It is too late to start learning English now and I shall have to continue as the happy and hap-hazard hedonist of etymologist’. TWO: ACS, 30 March 1954. He thanks him for his ‘excellent “One Word and Another”’ and hopes to write ‘a short “evaluation” of it (not “pejorative”) in the Observer’.