ANGUS

[Foyles Literary Luncheon for Sir Angus Wilson, 1980.] Autograph Letter Signed from ‘Dolly’ [Mrs A. G. Dowdeswell] to ‘Philip’ [Philip Dosse of ‘Books and Bookmen’], with reference to Wilson, Melvyn Bragg, Simon Young of John Murray, Ian Jack.

Author: 
[Foyles Literary Luncheon for Sir Angus Wilson, 1980] ‘Dolly’ [Mrs A. G. Dowdeswell, Secretary, The Johnson Society of London] [Philip Dosse (1925-1980), publisher ‘Books and Bookmen’; Melvyn Bragg,
Publication details: 
27 August 1980; on letterhead of 26 High Street, Biddenden, Kent.
£75.00

See the entries for Angus Wilson and Christina Foyle in the Oxford DNB. ‘Dolly’ is clearly the ‘Mrs. A. G. Dowdeswell’ who was secretary of the Johnson Society of London in the 70s and 80s (arranging luncheons) and named as a member of the Johnson Society at least as late as 1992. The recipient Philip Dosse was proprietor of Hansom Books, publisher of a stable of seven arts magazines including Books and Bookmen and Plays and Players. See ‘Death of a Bookman’ by the novelist Sally Emerson (editor of ‘Books and Bookmen’ at the time of Dosse’s suicide), in Standpoint magazine, October 2018.

[John Vickers, theatre photographer.] Duplicated Typed set of terms for ‘THEATRE PHOTOGRAPHY’, on his letterhead.

Author: 
John Vickers, theatre photographer [W. Macqueen-Pope (1888-1960), theatre historian and press agent for the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane]
Publication details: 
Dated September 1951. On his letterhead: ‘John Vickers / Photographer * 29B Belgrave Road, London, S.W.1 * Victoria 4915’.
£180.00

From the Macqueen-Pope papers. (See his entry in the Oxford DNB.) A nice piece of theatre and photographic ephemera. Vickers has five items in the National Portrait Gallery, which provides the following information: ‘John Vickers began his career by working as assistant to photographer Angus McBean in the 1930s. From 1939 until the time of his death, he ran his own studio. After the war he became well known as a theatre photographer working for theatres including the Old Vic.

[Angus McBean, Welsh photographer and set designer associated with surrealism.] Bromide print of photographic portrait of Moya Macqueen-Pope, daughter of theatre historian W. Macqueen-Pope.

Author: 
Angus McBean [Angus Rowland McBean] (1904-1990), Welsh photographer and set designer associated with surrealism [Moya Macqueen-Pope (b.1916), daughter of theatre historian Walter James Macqueen-Pope]
Publication details: 
Undated. Stamp on reverse of ‘Angus McBean / Photographer / Maskmaker / 29B Belgrave Road, / London, S.W.1. / Telephone: Victoria 1048.’
£350.00

From the papers of W. Macqueen-Pope. See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. The National Portrait Gallery holds McBean’s portrait of MP, but not the present item, of which no other copy has been traced. 17.5 x 25 cm. In fair condition, with two corners dogeared; the reverse, carrying McBean’s stamp, is rather discoloured. Also on the reverse, in pencil is ‘Moya Macqueen-Pope’. Plain background.

[Angus Wilson, novelist, as British Museum librarian.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Angus Wilson.') to 'Rylands', regarding his letter to 'Noel', which he has asked 'Mr Greene' to show him.

Author: 
Angus Wilson [Sir Angus Frank Johnstone-Wilson] (1913-1991), novelist [British Museum, Department of Printed Books]
Publication details: 
12 October 1950; on letterhead of the Reading Room, British Museum, London, W.C.1.
£30.00

1p, 12mo. In good condition, on lightly aged paper. Folded twice, resulting in offset ink smudging. Reads: 'Dear Rylands, | I am writing to you in case Noel is away. I have asked Mr Greene to show you my letter to Noel, if this is should [sic] be so. Anything you could do to help, would be kind and good, I think.

[First World War commemoration.] Printed pamphlet with fold-out plan: 'The Empire's War Memorial and a Project for a British Imperial University of Commerce by Ernest H. Taylor and J. B. Black, M.A., B.A.'

Author: 
Ernest H. Taylor; J. B. Black [Isambard Owen, W. H. Hadow, H. F. Wilson, Angus Watson, T. J. Lennard, A. K. Wright] ['The Empire's War Memorial'; First World War commemoration]
Publication details: 
Edinburgh: Macniven & Wallace, 138 Princes Street, 1920.
£56.00

56pp, 8vo. With fold-out 'Chart indicating the suggested arrangement of buildings etc:' at rear, 29.5 x 53.5 cm. In grey printed wraps. Internally in good condition, lightly aged, in worn and torn wraps which are becoming detached. With label, stamp and shelfmarks of the Board of Education Reference Library. Black's preface (pp.5-6) begins by explaining that 'The ideas embodied in the following pages are the product of some eight months incarceration in Germany.

[William Henry Angas, Baptist 'Missionary to Seafaring Men'.] Autograph Letter Signed ('W. H. Angas'), on his work in 'the Ports of Berwick & Dunbar' for the Seamens Friends Socy', and need of money, having 'run myself quite dry aground as to Cash'.

Author: 
William Henry Angas (1781-1832) of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Baptist 'Missionary to Seafaring Men [Sealemen's Friend's Society]
Publication details: 
'Post office Leith May 5/29' [5 May 1829].
£150.00

For information on Angas, see his entry in the Oxford DNB and F. A. Cox, 'Memoirs of the Rev. William Henry Angas, ordained “A Missionary to Seafaring Men,” May 11, 1822' (1834). 2pp, 4to. In fair condition, aged and creased. Folded three times. The recipient is not named. The letter begins: 'My Dear Sir | You will perceive by the present how far I have come on on my way. The Ports of Berwick & Dunbar &c have kept me busily & I trust usefully employed, for the prospects for good among the Seamen & especially the Fishermen look flattering.

[William Angus Knight, Professor of Moral Philosophy, University of St Andrews.] Autograph Letter Signed ('W. Knight.') to James Dykes Campbell, expressing regret at revealing the existence of Wordsworth's 'Axiologus' sonnet, and attacking T. J. Wise

Author: 
William Angus Knight (1836-1916), Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of St Andrews, 1876-1902 [James Dykes Campbell (1838-1895), Coleridge biographer; Thomas James Wise. forger]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the 'University of St Andrew. N.B. [Scotland]'. 2 January 1892.
£120.00

2pp., 12mo. In fair condition, on aged and lightly-worn paper. Written in a difficult hand. The letter begins: 'My dear Campbell. | You will find all I know about Axiologus, and Miss Maria Williams, in a prefatory note Vol I of my Edition of W[illiam]. W[ordsworth].s Poems (not Life).' He confirms that the poem is by Wordsworth, and expresses regret at 'letting it be known: for it led Tutin [John Ramsden Tutin (1855-1913)] of Hull to go & print the sonnet for private circulation some years ago.

[William Knight, Professor of Moral Philosophy, University of St Andrews] Autograph Letter Signed to 'My dear Robert'

Author: 
William Knight [William Angus Knight] (1836-1916), Scottish author and editor, Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of St Andrews
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the University Arms Hotel, Cambridge. 7 August 1902.
£90.00

2pp., 12mo. On bifolium. In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper. In addition to the message he left for the recipient's guest 'as to Carnegie', he asks him to tell his father-in-law (the London parliamentary bookseller P. S. King?) 'that it will be a very great favour if he sends me, to glance over, those letters he spoke of'. He undertakes to 'return them at once', and gives his address in Aberdeenshire for August and September. He has 'called twice on the chance of seeing Mrs. Roberts to say Goodbye', and asks the recipient to 'say it for me, in kindly fashion'.

Typed Letter Signed from the Anglo-Jewish novelist Emanuel Litvinoff, thanking Derek Stanford for a review, and discussing the novelist Angus Wilson ('one of the few writers to whom I've written a fan letter') and short story writing.

Author: 
Emanuel Litvinoff (19150-2011), Anglo-Jewish novelist [Derek Stanford (1918-2008), Anglo-Jewish author and critic; Angus Wilson (1913-1991), English novelist]
Publication details: 
36 Byron Court, Mecklenburgh Square, London. 2 July 1973.
£165.00

1p., 4to. He thanks Stanford for sending 'the carbon' of his 'warm review' of Litvinoff's novel ('A Death out of Season'). He missed the article and the note Stanford wrote 'about my autobiographical sequence' in the Scotsman, but is now iinterested to see from the review that Stanford is 'nursing the idea of a 'Forties memoir. Amazingly, few of us have written about the decade. I shall be getting around to it one day also, I hope.

Two copies of the typescript of a humorous poem titled 'Lines Written in Contemplation of the King's Bodyguard for Scotland 1937.'

Author: 
T. B. S.' [T. B. Simpson; Thomas Blantyre Simpson (1892-1954), author and Sheriff of Perth and Angus] [The King's Bodyguard for Scotland]
Publication details: 
1937. [One copy headed in manuscript: 'From T. B. SIMPSON | 11/6/49.']
£75.00

Each of the two typescripts is on one side of a piece of A4 paper. One is signed in type at end 'T. B.S.' and the other (which appears to be mimeographed) carries what is presumably Simpson's signature at head in the manuscript note: 'From T. B. SIMPSON | 11/6/49.' Text of each clear and complete, on creased and aged paper. Apart from the typed signature to the one copy, and the fact that one copy has square brackets and the other curved, the two texts are identical.

Three Typed Letters Signed, two of them to G. K. Menzies, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts, together with three leaflets relating to the 'THE AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATIONS LTD.'

Author: 
Alfred Henry Angus [ADVERTISING]
Publication details: 
The letters, 30 November, 3 and 7 December 1931; the first on the letterhead of the Audit Bureau of Circulations Ltd, and the last two on the letterhead of the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers Ltd.
£85.00

Founder and first editor of The British Advertiser (1873-1957). The collection in very good condition, with rust marks from a paperclip to one item. All items quarto. All items signed 'Alfred H. Angus'. The first letter invites 'The Managing Editor' of the Society's Journal to become a member of the A.B. of C. 'It is felt that your co-operation would be of the utmost value to the Bureau in the achievent of its objectives.' Letter three states that the I.S.B.A. executive have 'unanimously elected' W. D. H. McCullough as their representative to the R.S.A. committee.

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