BIOGRAPHY

[‘I take a great interest in the small points of style’: Lord David Cecil, author and scholar.] Typed Letter Signed, responding to linguistic ‘strictures’ by V. H. Collins, who annotates the letter.

Author: 
Lord David Cecil [Lord Edward Christian David Gascoyne-Cecil] (1902-1986), author, biographer and scholar [Vere Henry Collins, author]
Publication details: 
24 May 1954. On letterhead of 7 Linton Road, Oxford.
£90.00

An interesting letter, revealing some of Cecil's views on the art of writing. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient Vere Henry Collins (1872-1966), was an author and grammatical stickler, and Cecil has clearly been on the receiving end of a ticking off. 2pp, 4to. On grey paper. In fair condition, lightly aged, with creasing and a short closed cut at the foot. He begins by stating that he found Collins’s letter ‘very interesting’: ‘I take a great interest in the small points of style.’ He agrees with some of Collins’s ‘strictures’, ‘in particular that about the exclamation mark.

[Sir Arthur Bryant, historian and biographer of Samuel Pepys.] Signed Autograph Inscription to Philip Dosse, publisher of 'Books and Bookmen', on the half-title of his book 'A Thousand Years of British Monarchy'.

Author: 
Sir Arthur Bryant [Sir Arthur Wynne Morgan Bryant] (1899-1985), historian and biographer of Samuel Pepys [Philip Dosse (1925-1980), publisher of arts magazines including ‘Books and Bookmen’]
Publication details: 
No date or place, but the book published in London in 1975.
£35.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, the revised version of which describes his pre-war Nazi sympathies. 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. 1p, 8vo.

[Sir Arthur Bryant, historian and biographer of Samuel Pepys.] Seven Autograph Letters Signed and four Typed Letters Signed to publisher Philip Dosse, regarding reviews in ‘Books and Bookmen’, and his writing a multi-volume biography of Dr Johnson.

Author: 
Sir Arthur Bryant [Sir Arthur Wynne Morgan Bryant] (1899-1985), historian and biographer of Samuel Pepys [Philip Dosse (1925-1980), publisher of arts magazines including ‘Books and Bookmen’]
Publication details: 
Between 12 May 1974 and 22 January 1976. On either of two of his letterheads: from 18 Rutland Gate, London SW7, or Myles Place, The Close, Salisbury.
£220.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, the revised version of which describes his pre-war Nazi sympathies. 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. The present collection of eleven items totals 17pp (fourteen pages in autograph and four typed), in various sizes from 4to to 12mo.

[‘I don’t much like the idea of sniping at my fellow writers’: Peter Quennell, biographer and historian.] Autograph Letter Signed to Philip Dosse, publisher of ‘Books and Bookmen’, declining to ‘co-operate’ with his ‘questionnaire’.

Author: 
Peter Quennell [Sir Peter Courtney Quennell] (1905-1993), biographer, historian and founding co-editor of ‘History Today’ [Philip Dosse (1925-1980), publisher of ‘Books and Bookmen’]
Publication details: 
4 December 1973; on his joint letterhead with Alan Hodge as co-editor of ‘History Today’, London.
£56.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 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. The present item is 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and creased. Folded once for postage. Signed ‘Peter Quennell’. He ‘can’t co-operate’ with the questionnaire that Dosse has sent him.

[H. Montgomery Hyde, authority on Oscar Wilde and Ulster Unionist MP.] Autograph Letter Signed to Philip Dosse, publisher of ‘Books and Bookmen’, regarding a review by Lord O’Neill of his book on Carson, a trip to North America, and money owed.

Author: 
H. Montgomery Hyde [Harford Montgomery Hyde] (1907-1989), writer, Ulster Unionist politician and authority on Oscar Wilde [Philip Dosse (1925-1980), publisher of ‘Books and Bookmen’]
Publication details: 
30 September 1974; on letterhead of Westwell House, Tenterden, Kent.
£120.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 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. The present item is 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, and folded once for postage. Thirty-one lines of text. Signed ‘H.

[Clement Shorter, author and journalist.] Typed Letter Signed, responding to two letters from Manningham Sayers.

Author: 
Clement Shorter [Clement King Shorter] (1857-1926), author and journalist, editor of the Illustrated London News, founder and editor of the Sketch, the Sphere and the Tatler
Publication details: 
23 February 1921; on letterhead of The Sphere, London.
£56.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. On aged and worn paper; folded four times. Signed ‘Clement Shorter’. The letter is headed with Sayers’ Totnes address. He begins by explaining that the Sphere’s ‘Children’s Supplement’ has been abandoned due to ‘the high cost of paper’. Turning to Sayers’ other letter, he thanks him for offering to lend him a copy of Baring Gould’s ‘Strange Survivals’, but that he will obtain his own copy. He ends by thanking him for ‘the various information’.

[ Margaret Forster responds to 'The New Historical Fiction'. ] Autograph Draft of Forster's New York Times review of Frances Sherwood's 'Vindication', with photocopy of the fair copy, page of autograph notes, uncorrected proof, press release, slip.

Author: 
Margaret Forster (1938-2016), English novelist and biographer [ Frances Sherwood (b.1940), American author, Professor of English at Indiana University; 'The New Historical Fiction'; New York Times ]
Publication details: 
[ London and New York. ] 1993.
£750.00

The present collection provides an interesting view of the response of a traditional novelist and biographer to the work of a proponent of 'The New Historical Fiction'. Margaret Forster was a noted British author, in addition to her many novels she published a number of biographies, including ones of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1988) and Daphne du Maurier (1993). On its publication in 1993 Sherwood's first novel 'Vindication' was both successful and controversial.

[ Benjamin Brierley, Lancastrian poet and novelist. ] Home Memories, and Recollections of a Life. [ With 'In Memoriam Poems' by John L. Owen, William Charlton, Jennie Heywood, J. Gee and Charles C. Hall. ]

Author: 
Ben Brierley, Author of "Tales and Sketches of Lancashire Life," &c. [ Benjamin Brierley (1825-1896); John L. Owen, Bowdon; William Charlton, Hulme; Jennie Heywood, Rochdale; J. Gee, Manchester ]
Publication details: 
Manchester: Abel Heywood & Son, 56 & 58, Oldham Street, London; Simpkin, Marshall, & Co., Stationers' Hall Court. [ 1886 or 1887. ]
£50.00

Viii + 99 + [1]pp., 12mo. In Victorian half-binding, with dark-green calf spine and corners, and brown marbled boards. The original yellow card front cover has been bound in with the volume. It carries the price (one shilling), title, publication details, and a portrait of Brierley, and is headed 'AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH', The volume contains no library markings whatsoever, but the front pastedown carries a pink printed notice of the 'Rules of the Library' of the Bury District Co-operative Society Ltd.

[ Proof of the suppressed version of Ian Hamilton's biography, with fullest quotations from Salinger's letters. ] J. D. Salinger: A Writing Life.

Author: 
Ian Hamilton [ J. D. Salinger; William Heinemann Ltd, London publishers; Random House ]
Publication details: 
Suppressed proof. [ London: William Heinemann Ltd. 1986 ]
£1,850.00

The present item is a product of one of the most celebrated publishing controversies of the twentieth century. In 1982 the English critic and poet Ian Hamilton set out to write a biography of the legendarily-reclusive Salinger. The attempt, as The Times explained in Hamilton's obituary, 31 December 2001, 'went horribly wrong': 'Salinger succeeded in blocking publication in the courts', because the book, to be titled 'J. D.

[ Pamphlet; inscribed by Hartog ] The Bicentenary of Joseph Priestley

Author: 
Sir Philip Hartog, A.N. Meldrum and Sir Harold Hartley
Publication details: 
Printed by Richard Clay, Bungay. Reprinted from the Journal of the Chemical Society, July, 1933.
£100.00

Paginated 896-920, beige wraps, sl. worn, vestiges of postage stamp on back cover, fold marks (postal wear and tear), contents good. Inscribed on front cover top, T W.H.D. from P.J.H[artog].

[Compiler of Dictionary] Autograph Note, third person, to "Mr Cowper", re. autograph collecting.

Author: 
L.B. Phillips [Lawrence B. Phillips], compiler of "The Dictionary of Biographical Reference" (1871).
Publication details: 
[Printed heading] 12 Queen Square, Bloomsbury, 27 May 1871.
£35.00

One page, 12mo, minor staining, complete and clear. "L>B> Phillips persents his Compts. to Mr. Cowper and desires to inform him that not being a collector of Autographs her cannot assist in the exchange proposed. Mr P. has a large assortment of Fac-Similes".

[Agricol-Hippolyte de Lapierre de Châteauneuf ['Citoyen Châteauneuf '], French author.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Châteauneuf'), in French, to an unnamed individual

Author: 
Agricol-Hippolyte de Lapierre de Châteauneuf ['Citoyen Châteauneuf '] (1766-1842), French author
Publication details: 
Without date or place. [Paris, circa 1815.]
£180.00

1p., 8vo. In fair condition, on aged paper, with a thin strip torn away at head, and the bottom right-hand corner detached from the rest of the letter, and repaired with archival tape, the tear running through the signature. The letter begins: 'Parmi Les grands hommes qui ont servi l'Etat, nos anciennes Croniques et L'histoire nomment vos encêtres.' He wishes to include the most celebrated of these 'dans mon histoire des Grands Capitaines de La france depuis Le Connétable du Guesclin jusqu'au maréchal de Saxe, ou dans mon Dictionnaire historique des hommes illustres de La france'.

[Printed pamphlet in the series of 'Haughton's Popular Illustrated Biographies'.] The Life of Thomas Carlyle. [With steel engraved portrait.]

Author: 
[Haughton & Co., 10, Paternoster Row; 'Haughton's Popular Illustrated Biographies'; Thomas Carlyle]
Publication details: 
['Haughton's Popular Illustrated Biographies.'] London: Haughton & Co., 10, Paternoster Row. [1881.]
£38.00

16pp., 8vo. Disbound. In fair condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. Steel engraved portrait of Carlyle on title-page. Clearly produced immediately following Carlyle's death, as the commencement indicates: 'On a cold wintry Monday morning in February the Times announced that Thomas Carlyle was seriously ill.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Arthur Helps') from the Dean of the Privy Council Sir Arthur Helps to Sir Theodore Martin, praising an article by him on Baron Stockmar.

Author: 
Sir Arthur Helps (1813-1875), English author and Dean of the Privy Council [Sir Theodore Martin (1816-1909), Scottish lawyer and author; Christian Friedrich (1787-1863), Baron Stockmar]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the Privy Council Office. 19 September 1872.
£56.00

6pp., 12mo. In very good condition, adhering to leaves removed from an album. Helps begins: 'My dear Martin, | This is one of the things you excel in - the giving, in a comparatively short memoir, the real aim and end of a life: so that after reading your "In memoriam", one does not care to hear any more details.' Helps 'really cannot find any fault' in Martin's piece. 'H[er]. M[ajesty] [i.e. Queen Victoria] must, I think, be exceedingly pleased with the book - I mean your work.

Somersetshire Worthies. [In original wraps.]

Author: 
Edward T. D. Foxcroft. [Frome, Somersetshire]
Publication details: 
[1876 or 1878] London: W. Kent & Co., 23, Paternoster Row. Frome: W. C. & J. Penny.
£125.00

12mo: [vi] + iv + 80. In original grey printed wraps, on which the name of the London publishers Kent features before Penny's (the actual title page simply gives 'Frome: W. C. & J. Penny.') Text clear and complete. On aged and slightly grubby paper. Wraps worn and stained. Recently bound in grey boards, with red leather label gilt on front. Ownership inscription at head of front wrap, dated 25 May 1878. Fly leaf with contemporary quotation decrying the books publication, 'as it may deter some more capable writer with better sources of information at his command'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W. F. Monypenny') to Charles J. Trevor.

Author: 
William Flavelle Monypenny (1866-1912), British journalist and historian, best known for his biography (with G. E. Buckle) of Benjamin Disraeli
Publication details: 
29 May 1907; on letterhead 2 Queen Anne's Gate, S.W.
£35.00

Two pages, 12mo. Good, on spotted paper. Folded twice.He is obliged to his correspondent for 'sending me a copy of the Disraeli letter in your possession'. He will not trouble his correspondent for a loan of the original 'as the contents are rather of private than of public interest'.

Autograph Letter Signed to [Osbert Guy Stanhope] Crawford.

Author: 
John Reginald Homer Weaver [DICTIONARY OF NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY]
Publication details: 
7 September 1955; on letterhead of the Athenaeum Club, Pall Mall.
£35.00

One of the editors of the Dictionary of National Biography (born 1882). The recipient (1886-1957) was a noted archaeologist. Two pages, 12mo. In poor condition: creased, grubby, worn, stained and repaired. Weaver has just been reading Crawford's 'extremely interesting autobiography with its most original title' ('Said and done.

Autograph Note Signed to R. S. McMinn.

Author: 
Edward Verrall Lucas
Publication details: 
41 Sloane St; no date, but postmarked 21 Sept 1920.
£25.00

English essayist and biographer (1868-1938). Plain postcard, dimensions roughly 4 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inches. Grubby and smudged, with central vertical crease. Deleted printed letterhead '176, VICTORIA STREET, | (CORNER OF BUCKINGHAM PALACE ROAD.) | S.W.1.' Reads '41 Sloane St | Many thanks | E. V. Lucas'. Addressed by Lucas to 'R. S. McMinn Esq | 35 Birdhurst Rd | S. Croydon'.

Signed uncashed bank cheque payable to J. H. Thorpe.

Author: 
Edward Verrall Lucas
Publication details: 
Barclays Bank Limited | 366, STRAND, W.C.2.'; 12 July 1927.
£30.00

English essayist and biographer (1868-1938). Attractive printed cheque in black and blue ink on light blue paper: dimensions roughly 7 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inches. The cheque is for sixpence, and a pencil note (presumably by Thorpe) on the reverse explains how it results from a lost wager: 'Bet | Whether Geo A Birmingham wrote a Gen[era]l knowledge book. | He did.'

Autograph Letter Signed to 'Mr Wilson'.

Author: 
George Ernest Manwaring
Publication details: 
18 November 1931; London Library, St. James's Square, S.W.1.
£30.00

1 page, 8vo. Grubby but in good condition. 'In case you have not already seen it, I beg to enclose you a leaflet relating to my new book. | I shall be grateful for any help that you can give it.' Signed 'G. E. Manwaring'. The book was 'My Friend the Admiral. The life, letters, and journals of Rear-Admiral James Burney' (Routledge, 1931).

One Autograph Letter Signed, one Autograph Card Signed, one calling card bearing unsigned Autograph Note, and one obituary from an unnamed newspaper.

Author: 
Sir Philip Montefiore Magnus, Bart.
Publication details: 
Card to C. H. Grinling of Red Roofs, Peaslake, Surrey: 15 December 1928; letter: 13 June 1930; both fromTangley-Hill, Chilworth, Surrey; calling card and newspaper cutting without place or date.
£30.00

Educationalist and biographer of Kitchener and Edward VII. All items are in good condition, but bear traces of rust from paper clips. The card is 1 page, 12mo, with printed letterhead, and carries two stamps and postmark on reverse. He is going to London the next day and will stay till Thursday. He will be happy to see Grinling on Sunday or Monday if convenient and he will try to be at home. The letter is 1 page, 8vo. In it he thanks his correspondent for the 'interesting papers which I will return'.

16mo fragment of ALS to unnamed correspondent

Author: 
Sir Sidney Lee (DNB), editor of the Dictionary of National Biography and Shakespeare scholar
Publication details: 
no date or place
£20.00

"I will carefully consider the suggestion and if the need arise will communicate with you again. | Yours faithfully | Sidney Lee"

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