CONVERSATION

[Robert Lynd, Irish journalist and essayist at whose house James Joyce held his wedding reception.] Part of Corrected Autograph Draft of essay on ‘the Irish comic spirit’and ‘the Irish tradition’ in literature.

Author: 
Robert Lynd [Robert Wilson Lynd] (1879-1949), Irish journalist and essayist, husband of the poet Sylvia Lynd (1888-1952), at whose house James Joyce held his wedding reception
Publication details: 
No date, but published in the Irish Book Lover (London and Dublin), vol. 13, 1922.
£650.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Unsigned, but in Lynd’s hand and from the Lynd family papers. 6pp, 4to, on six leaves of ruled paper, twenty-six lines to a page. In fair condition, lightly aged, with dog-eared corners. Lynd’s handwriting is execrable, and he employs a number of abbreviations of common words, such as ‘and’, ‘the’, ‘of’. Begins: ‘[...] found expression in literature. / As I have suggested, however, it is in the art of conversation rather than the art of literature that the Irish comic spirit has found its fullest expression.

[ Printed catalogue; Zoffany ] Loan Exhibition of 18th Century English Conversation Pieces.

Author: 
Philip Sassoon [ Sir Philip Sassoon (1888-1939), politician, art collector and social host ]
Publication details: 
[ 25 Park Lane, London. ] March 1930. [ At foot of back cover: 'M. W. D. N.' ]
£120.00

36pp., 4to. Stapled pamphlet. Aged and worn. Pencil annotations throughout. Four-page 'Foreword' by 'Philip Sassoon', followed by four-page 'Short Biography of Painters and Index Numbers'. The twenty-three page catalogue (with marginal pencil annotations) features 152 items, and is followed by a three-page 'Index to Exhibitors'. Loosely inserted is a duplicated typescript (1p., 12mo), giving the address, opening times, and prices. John Zoffany is well represented.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Fitzhardinge') from William Fitzhardinge Berkeley, 1st Earl FitzHardinge, complaining to the editor of the Bristol Times [Joseph Leech] of misrepresentation in a letter by his brother the MP Grantley Berkeley.

Author: 
William Fitzhardinge Berkeley (1786-1857), 1st Earl FitzHardinge [styled the Lord Seagrave, 1831-1841] [Joseph Leech; Hon. George Charles Grantley Fitzhardinge Berkeley (1800-1881)]
Publication details: 
Cheltenham; 11 February 1850.
£120.00

2pp., 4to. In good condition, on aged paper, with traces of mount at head. The Earl and his brother loathed one another. FitzHardinge was a notorious philanderer, and Berkeley - whose violent behaviour included assaulting the bookseller Fraser and duelling with Maginn - held his position as a Member of Parliament to spite him. The letter begins: 'Sir. | You have published a letter from Mr.

Autograph Letter Signed ('M Berry') from Horace Walpole's friend Miss Mary Berry to the politician and wit Richard 'Conversation' Sharp, commenting on his volume of 'Epistles in Verse'.

Author: 
Mary Berry ['Miss Berry'] (1763-1852), author and diarist; sister and companion of Agnes Berry (1764-1852), friend of Horace Walpole [Richard 'Conversation' Sharp (1759-1835), politician and wit]
Mary Berry ['Miss Berry']
Publication details: 
7 April 1828; Petersham.
£230.00
Mary Berry ['Miss Berry']

12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Her 'constant practice' has always been to return her thanks for the gift of a poetry volume 'before I could possibly have had time to read it', but in this case 'this caution was impossible for I received your little Vol: in all the hurry of leaving town, & I may say England, for I shall not return to London before our departure'. She is glad she was not able to write before reading the poems 'with the attention they merit & with all the pleasure they have given me'.

Autograph Letter, in the third person, to 'Mr Sharpe' [Richard 'Conversation' Sharp?].

Author: 
William Windham (1750-1810), English Whig politician [Richard 'Conversation' Sharp (1759-1835)]
Publication details: 
15 February 1804; Pall Mall.
£38.00

12mo, 2 pp. Good, on aged paper. A formal letter in the third person. Windham 'is almost ashamed' of sending Sharpe 'anything so trifling as what accompanies this note'. His justification for doing so is the 'wish of having his opinions stated with tolerable correctness on a subject to which Mr Sharpe, as a matter of some interest at the moment, may happen in some degree to have turned his thoughts.' Sharp's name was often misspelt by contemporaries, and he is listed in the index to the online Oxford DNB as 'also known as Sharpe, Richard'.

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