EXPRESS

[Hugh Cudlipp, Lord Cudlipp, as Managing Editor of the Sunday Express.] Typed Letter Signed to theatre historian W. J. Macqueen-Pope, regarding the changes to be made to an article, ‘with the usual skill of the Sunday Express’.

Author: 
Hugh Cudlipp [Hubert Kinsman Cudlipp; Lord Cudlipp] (1913-1998), Welsh journalist, influential editor of Fleet Street title the Daily Mirror [Walter James Macqueen-Pope (1888-1960), theatre historian]
Publication details: 
16 November 1951; on letterhead of the 'Sunday Express', Fleet Street, London.
£35.00

From the Macqueen-Pope papers. See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, lightly aged. 1p, 12mo. Signed (as Managing Editor of the Sunday Express) ‘Hugh’ and addressed to ‘Dear Popie’. The article will start, as he explained on the telephone, ‘with the death scene. / Here is the galley proof - uncorrected, so do not worry about literals. / We may also have to reduce the length a little, but it will be done with the usual skill of the Sunday Express’.

[Lord Beaverbook, owner of the Daily Express, Fleet Street press baron.] Typed Note Signed (‘Max Aitken’) to the educationalist T. Lloyd Humberstone, enquring into ‘the situation regarding the Bedford estate’.

Author: 
Lord Beaverbrook [Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook] (1879-1964), Fleet Street press baron, owner of the Daily Express and other titles [T. Lloyd Humberstone, educationalist]
Publication details: 
8 May 1948. On House of Commons and 121 Fleet Street letterhead of ‘The Hon. Max Aitken, D.S.O., D.F.C., M.P.’
£40.00

See Beaverbrook's entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient Thomas Lloyd Humberstone (1876-1957) was an educationalist and prominent member of the Convocation of the University of London. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Addressed to Humberstone at 15 Gower Street, London. After apologizing for the delay in replying, due to his absence, he simply states: ‘I am inquiring into the situation regarding the Bedford estate.’ Possibly written in reference to the Senate House development, in which Humberstone took a keen interest.

['George' Strube, Daily Express political cartoonist.] Two Typed Letters Signed (both '”George” STRUBE') to journalist Collin Brooks, regarding the the photographic reproduction of a picture. With copy of a letter from Brooks.

Author: 
'George' Strube [Sidney Conrad Strube] (1891-1956), Daily Express political cartoonist, receiving the highest salary in Fleet Street Collin Brooks (1893-1959), journalist, editor of Sunday Dispatch]
Publication details: 
On (different) letterheads of the Daily Express, Fleet Street, London. 18 April and 9 May 1947.
£35.00

Both 1p., 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged and worn, with paperclip stain to first letter. Unusual signature, in block capitals. Both addressed to Brooks at the Savage Club, with both salutations to 'Collin'. ONE: 18 April 1947. Begins: 'My dear Collin, | I consulted my firend in the Process Department here and he said that a half-tone block would not be very successful, as there is a dash of colour in the picture and the half-tone would not bring it out very well. He thought that a photograph on a piece of Matt bromide paper would look much better and not spoil the detail of the drawing.

[ Jack Denton, film director. ] Four Autograph Letters Signed to film maker Percy Nash, with copy of the script of his play 'The Fairyland Express' ('A Xmas Fairy Play By Jack Denton').

Author: 
Jack Denton (fl. 1924), British actor and film director of the silent era [ Percy Nash [ Percy Cromwell Nash ] (1869-1958), actor, dramatist and film director ]
Publication details: 
The first two of Denton's letters from 12 Montague Road, Richmond, Surrey, and the last two from the Opera House, Coventry. All four from 1933. The playscript from 25 Monmouth Road, Watford, and undated.
£450.00

ONE: Typed playscript. 64pp., 8vo. Typed in purple ink, on rectos only. In pink card 'Ludgate File', with white typed label on front cover: 'THE FAIRYLAND EXPRESS'. In fair condition, aged and worn, with the leaves bound in with a rusted metal bar. Initial blank leaf with ownership inscription: 'Jack Denton | 12 Montague Road | Richmond | Surrey', as well as 'Mr Percy Nash | see phone'. The first page gives Denton's typed address as '25 Monmouth Road | Watford', and lists the cast, headed by 'Prudence . . . a little girl from Kensington', and 'Eric' and 'Marjorie', who are 'Her cousins . .

[ John Rutherford Gordon, editor of the 'Sunday Express'. ] 'Rough draft' of typed article, with autograph emendations, on Lord Northcliffe, 'the incomparable journalist of the age', written from personal knowledge.

Author: 
John Rutherford Gordon (1890-1974), editor of London 'Sunday Express' [ Lord Northcliffe [ Alfred Charles William Harmsworth (1865-1922), 1st Viscount Northcliffe ], press baron, owner of Daily Mail ]
Publication details: 
Dated 25 April 1952, and with autograph note stating that it was 'Partly used in Sunday Express [ London ] 27/4/52'.
£350.00

21pp., fourteen of them in 4to, and the other seven pages cut down. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. Stapled together, with the first leaf detached. The article is complete but untitled. It is unattributed, but comes from the J. R. Gordon papers. A well-written and incisive piece, written from an insider's point of view. Gordon lays out his stall at the very start: 'Few people of our generation have influenced the life of it so profoundly as Lord Northcliffe. He was the incomparable journalist of our age.

[Archive; unpublished history] Papers and correspondence relating to an intended history of the early years of the Daily Express

Author: 
John Gordon, editor of the Sunday Express [Lord Beaverbrook]:
Publication details: 
No particular place or date.
£2,000.00

For more about John Rutherford Gordon (1890-1974), editor of the Sunday Express between 1928 and 1952, see his entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.Although the volume for which the present material was amassed did not materialise, there is no doubting the seriousness of the project. Working with Beaverbrook's approval and encouragement (the nine memoranda by him present in the collection indicate his interest), Gordon employed Sunday Express news editor Jack Garbutt (John Lambert Garbutt, 1907-1973), John ('Jock') Selby Bradford and 'T. N. Shane' (i.e. H. A. H.

[R. H. Naylor, astrologer.] Typed Signed Horoscope of President Roosevelt, with letter to John Gordon, editor of the Sunday Express, reporting 'queer indications therein'. With typed copy of report of Naylor's 1936 trial, brought by Maurice Barbanell

Author: 
R. H. Naylor [Richard Harold Naylor] (1889-1952), Britain's first newspaper astrologer [John Rutherford Gordon (1890-1974), editor of the London 'Daily Express'; Maurice Barbanell (1902-1982)]
Publication details: 
Letter from Naylor to Gordon: On his letterhead, 43 Museum Street, London, WC1. 21 January 1941. Horoscope dating from a round the same time. Report of trial undated [March 1936].
£250.00

Three items from the papers of John Gordon, editor of the Daily Express. The first two in good condition, lightly aged and creased; the third creased and torn, with slight loss to text. ONE: Typed Letter Signed ('R. H. N.') from Naylor to Gordon. 1p., 12mo. Headed 'Confidential'. He writes: 'Having drawn up an Astrological Chart for the time of the official inauguration of Roosevelt's Third Term I find some queer indications there. To me they are tremendously interesting and as I think you might find them interesting too I am sending you a copy of the notes I have filed.

[B. H. Liddell Hart as 'defeatist'.] Two Typescripts of his 'Memorandum' titled 'The Prospect in this War', including 'P.S. to Memorandum of November 7th. 1939. From the papers of John Gordon, editor of the Daily Express.

Author: 
B. H. Liddell Hart [Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart] (1895–1970), military thinker and historian [John Rutherford Gordon (1890-1974), editor of the London 'Daily Express']
Publication details: 
Both typescripts have 'The Prospect in this War' dated 'B. H. L. H. 8th. [in one draft amended from '7th.'] November, 1939.', and the 'P.S. to Memorandum of November 7th. [sic] 1939' dated '14th November 1939.'
£950.00

This piece does not appear to have been published, and the only copy traced is in the Liddell Hart Papers at King's College London, with the original manuscript and an accompanying list of eighteen recipients including Lloyd George, H. G. Wells, and John Gordon of the Sunday Express, from whose papers the present two copies derive.

[D. B. Wyndham Lewis, humorist.] Autograph Letter Signed to Anglo-Irish poet Sylvia Lynd, a letter of condolence on the death of her husband, the essayist Robert Lynd.

Author: 
D. B. Wyndham Lewis [Dominic Bevan Wyndham Lewis] (1891-1969), humorist, for a while Daily Express 'Beachcomber' [Sylvia Lynd (1888-1952), Anglo-Irish poet, wife of essayist Robert Lynd (1879-1949)]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 31 Pembroke Road, W8 [London]. 8 October 1949.
£40.00

2pp., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly aged paper. 'His gentleness was always a lenitive and an example in such a raving jungle as Fleet Street. He will be badly missed everywhere by everybody.' He concludes by lamenting that as he is leaving for Italy the following day, the present letter will have to be his 'only tribute, alas. But I hope you will read into it a lot of things difficult to write.'

[First World War postcard poem by the 'Bath Railway Poet', Henry Chappell.] The Day. ['You boasted the Day, and you toasted the Day, | And now the Day has come.']

Author: 
Henry Chappell (1874-1937), the 'Bath Railway Poet' [Daily Express, London; First World War poetry]
Publication details: 
London: "Daily Express". Undated [1914]. 'Reprinted from the London "Daily Express" (Copyright).'
£160.00

Chappell gained a degree of fame with the publication of this poem in the Daily Express of 22 August 1914. The poem is addressed to the German people, and concerns the supposed toast among German army officers in the lead-up to the First World War, 'Der Tag' (i.e. 'the day' on which the war with England would commence). The poem is printed in portrait alignment on one side of a 14 x 8.5 cm postcard, within red and blue ink borders, giving a 'red white and blue' effect. Beneath the title in square brackets is the following: 'The author of this magnificent poem is Mr.

Typed Letter Signed ('Beaverbrook') from the press baron Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook, proprietor of the Daily Express, to the London bookseller Charles J. Sawyer, regarding 'the United States Tariff Act'.

Author: 
William Maxwell "Max" Aitken (1879-1964), 1st Baron Beaverbrook [Lord Beaverbrook], Anglo-Canadian press baron, proprietor of the Daily Express [Charles J. Sawyer, London bookseller]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of Lord Beaverbrook's Office, 29 Bury Street, St James', SW1 [London]. 14 July 1930.
£60.00

1p., 4to. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper, with strip from mount adhering at head of blank reverse. He thanks Sawyer for his letter: 'I am obliged to you for sending me the front page of the United States Tariff Act'. 'The Americans are out for their own prosperity all the time. I only wish our own Government would show the same propensity.' He addresses the letter to 'Chas. J. Sawyer, Esq., 12 & 13, Grafton Street, New Bond Street, W.1.

Autograph Letter Signed from the bookseller and publisher Herbert van Thal to the gossip columnist 'William Hickey' [Tom Driberg], regretting his sacking from the Daily Express

Author: 
Herbert van Thal [Bertie Maurice van Thal] (1904-1983), bookseller and publisher [Tom Driberg [Thomas Edward Neil Driberg] (1905-1976), Baron Bradwell, the 'William Hickey' of the Daily Express]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the White House, Regents Park, NW1. 5 July 1943.
£56.00

1p., 8vo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Van Thal was 'most distressed to read in the Daily Express this morning that you were no longer connected with that paper.' He thanks him 'for the pleasure that you have given me over a number of years of reading a first class column'. He hopes it will be 'discoverable as to where you are going to continue to write - or have politics put an end to a chapter?' In a postscript he states that he is at least 'able to console myself with Hansard!'

Autograph Letter Signed ('Bill') to Astor ('Max'), on the death of his father Lord Beaverbrook.

Author: 
William Waldorf Astor (1907-1966), 3rd Viscount Astor [Sir John William Maxwell Aitken (1910-1985), 2nd Baronet; Max Aitken
Publication details: 
9 June 1964; on Cliveden House letterhead.
£56.00

4to, 2 pp. Very good. Small ink tick at head of first page (not affecting text).

Autograph Note Signed to the autograph hunter Rev. E. J. F. Davies.

Author: 
Ralph David Blumenfeld (1864-1948), newspaper editor
Publication details: 
15 December 1930; on letterhead of the Daily Express.
£10.00

One page, 12mo. Very good, with light paperclip spotting. 'Certainly. I am glad to comply with your request.'

Eight Typed Letters, with cyclostyled signatures ('Arthur Pearson'), to Sir Henry Trueman Wood, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Sir Cyril Arthur Pearson [Sir Arthur Pearson] (1866-1921), founder of 'The Daily Express', President of the National Institute for the Blind and Fresh Air Fund
Publication details: 
October 1916 to June 1917; all on letterhead of the Blinded Soldiers' and Sailors' Hostel, St. Dunstan's, Regent's Park, N.W. [London].
£150.00

All eight items are 4to, 1 p, and good on lightly aged paper. Seven items bearing the Society's stamp and four docketed. The correspondence concerns a talk given by Pearson to the Society, 'on the subject of the training of the soldiers blinded in the War'. On 19 October 1916 Pearson writes: 'I am a little afraid that I cannot properly carry out the suggestion you so kindly make. I am quite blind, and therefore am unable to read a paper.' The 'preparation of a formal paper' would 'demand more time than I am able to spare at present.

Detailed pencil illustrations of nine steam engines [locomotives].

Author: 
B. Reynell [Victorian, Edwardian illustration; railway locomotives; steam engines]
Publication details: 
Without date or place [Edwardian?].
£200.00

Landscape sketchbook of twelve leaves. Dimensions of each leaf roughly 26.5 x 38 cm. Unbound and stitched. In original brown patterned wraps. Good, on lightly discoloured and spotted drawing paper, with some wear to extremities, heavy wear at head of spine, and in heavily-worn wraps. The first leaf, otherwise blank, has had a small square taken out of it, and there are stubs indicating the removal of a couple of leaves.

Typed Letter Signed to Sir Francis Peek.

Author: 
Ralph David Blumenfeld
Publication details: 
8 July 1932; on letterhead of The Company of Newspaper Makers.
£36.00

American-born British journalist (1864-1948), editor of the Daily Express, 1904-32. One page, quarto. Good, but on slightly discoloured paper, with slight staining to the four corners from previous mounting. Reads 'As one printer to another I want to tell you what I think of your magazine "Change". It does you all great credit. It is exceedingly well produced, presented with remarkably good taste, and I am astonished at the knowledge and technique.

Seven Autograph Letters Signed, one Letter in a secretarial hand Signed, and two Typed Letters Signed to Sir Henry Truman Wood, Secretary, Society of Arts.

Author: 
Fritz Bernhard Behr [High-Speed Mono-Rail System]
Publication details: 
February to November 1901; all on letterhead '5, Queen Anne's Gate, | London, S.W.'
£380.00

Anglo-German engineer (1842-1927), who administered 'a portion of the conquered territory for the German Government' following the Franco-Prussian War, and who, following his naturalisation as a British citizen in 1876, 'invented practically the mono-rail, now known as the High Speed Mono-Rail System, and obtained two acts of Parliament for the construction of the Manchester and Liverpool Electric Express Railway in 1901 and 1902' ('Who was Who'). No items by this important figure are present in the British Library Department of Manuscripts.

Typed Letter Signed to Sir Henry Truman Wood, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
George Titus Barham
Publication details: 
20 December 1916; on letterhead of the Express Dairy Co. Limited.
£23.00

Founder of Express Dairies (1860-1937), and antiquarian with a private museum in Sudbury. One page, quarto. Very good on slightly discoloured paper. He thanks him for sending Professor Petrie's letter. 'It is a subject which we have had before us for some time past, and are still keeping well in view as we are specially anxious to do something more on the lines the Professor pints [sic - and how appropriate!] out.' He has dropped Petrie a line. Signed 'G. Titus Barham'.

Typed Letter Signed to Pete Goodyer.

Author: 
Carl Ronald Giles
Publication details: 
16 March 1978; on Daily Express letterhead.
£125.00

Probably the most famous of the Fleet Street cartoonists (1916-95). One page, quarto. Folded twice. Good, but lightly creased. He thanks him for the 'very nice letter and compliments', but feels he 'must administer a small but friendly reprimand. The Jean Rook [a noted Daily Express columnist] originals you refer to were ones concerning her article of the day and were a personal presentation.' Discusses charity commitments, before remarking 'It may surprise you that I spend more time in the studio working for charities than I do earning my living!

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