IAN

[Geoffrey Jenkins, South African journalist and novelist, friend of Ian Fleming and author of an unpublished James Bond novel.] Typed Letter Signed to the autograph hunter Eileen Cond, regarding his next novel ‘A Grue of Ice’.

Author: 
Geoffrey Jenkins [Geoffrey Ernest Jenkins] (1920-2001), South African writer, husband of Eve Palmer, friend of Ian Fleming, author of an unpublished James Bond novel [Eileen Cond, autograph hunter]
Publication details: 
10 February 1961; on letterhead of The Star (‘Pretoria Office’).
£120.00

Jenkins’s Bond book ‘Per Fine Ounce’, which he claimed was based on a diamond-smuggling storyline he had developed with Fleming in 1957, was rejected by Fleming’s production company Glidrose in 1966. The recipient Eileen Margaret Cond (1911-1984) of Honiton was an enthusiastic collector of autographs, with the ability of drawing a more than perfunctory response from her targets. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded for postage. Signed 'Geoffrey Jenkins'.

[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.

[‘King of Redonda’: John Gawsworth, English poet.] Galley proof of his poem ‘Rest’ (‘Beneath the oaks the soldiers lie’) with one minor emendation.

Author: 
John Gawsworth [pseudonym of Terence Ian Fitton Armstrong (1912-1970)], English poet, author and ‘King of Redonda’ [New English Weekly, founded in 1932 by A. R. Orage]
Redonda
Publication details: 
No date [1940s]. Stamped ‘FOR & ON BEHALF OF / THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY. / 15 REGENT’S PARK TERRACE / GULiver 3875’.
£120.00
Redonda

On one side of a 12mo a piece of grey-green paper; creased, worn and torn at the bottom. A fifteen-line poem in five three-line stanzas, titled ‘REST’. At end: ‘JOHN GAWSWORTH’. Proof directions in pencil to convert a full-stop at the end of the fourth stanza to a comma. While the poet's attempt at direct simplicity verges on triteness, one should recall that he served manfully in the RAF: ‘Beneath the oaks the soldiers lie / Staring at the open sky / Drowsily, lazily. / Like England is this plot of green / But in the mountains all unseen / The guns’ complaint affects the scene.

One Autograph Letter Signed, Four Typed Letters Signed, and one Autograph Postcard Signed to Frank Marcham, Antiquarian Bookseller. With unsigned copy of one typed letter Marcham to Muir.

Author: 
Percy Muir, Bookman
Publication details: 
Taylors, Takeley, Essex (but on Elkin Mathews of 37a Duke Street or Grosvenor Street headed notepaper, with lines through the old addresses], 1939-1942, giving a picture of Britain and the Book Trade during the 2nd WW etc
£125.00

Total 5pp., 8vo, some chipping but texts clear and complete, signed variously, P, Percy Muir, Percy, PCM. (1939) Your letter cheered me up no end. It was just like being in the office & listening to you laying down the law in your usual style. | We hardly know there's a war on down here, except for black-outs & an unusual number of children in the village. We even manage to sell a few books from time to time - about one a week so far - made 3/- profit on a sale this morning. Well, I hope to live to see you commander in chief.

[Sir Ian Hamilton, British commander in the Gallipoli Campaign.] Autograph Letter Signed to George Townsend Warner, following consultation with Lord Roberts over a musketry matter and Harrow School.

Author: 
Sir Ian Hamilton [Sir Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton] (1853-1947), soldier, commander of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force in the First World War Gallipoli Campaign [George Townsend Warner]
Publication details: 
2 March 1901; on letterhead of 3 Chesterfield Street, Mayfair. [London.]
£45.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient is the Harrow housemaster George Townsend Warner (1865-1916), father of the novelist Sylvia Townsend Warner, referred to as ‘Townsend Warner / Historian’ in a pencil note to this letter. Signed ‘Ian Hamilton’. 2pp, 12mo. On first leaf of bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with a few pin holes from attachment of a no-longer-present enclosure. Folded twice. Possibly concerning shooting practice for the Harrow army cadets.

[Sir Rupert Hart-Davis, publisher.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Rupert') to antiquarian bookseller Percy Muir, praising his catalogues as his 'favourite reading', and ordering items while 'saving up' for his daughter's wedding.

Author: 
Rupert Hart-Davis [Sir Rupert Charles Hart-Davis] (1907-1999), publisher, editor and letter-writer [Percy Muir [Percy H. Muir] (1894-1979), leading bookseller with firm Elkin Mathews]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of Bromsden Farm, Henley-on-Thames, Oxon. 20 April 1963.
£90.00

1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged, with three punch holes to margin, and endorsement of number in a circle. The letter begins: 'My dear Percy | Your catalogues – especially the literary parts of them – are my favourite reading. You find such unusual books, and describe them with such care and skill.' He asks him to send him, 'to Soho Square', the two Rothenstein items nos 260 and 260 a'. He explains that while he longs 'for some of the Blunts', his daughter is getting married that June, and he is 'saving up for that'.

[Robert Harling, typographer who may have served as model for James Bond.] Typed Letter Signed ('Luv Robert') to the bookseller Percy Muir, on his eightieth birthday, discussing their lives and criticising their old friend, Ian Fleming's wife Ann.

Author: 
Robert Harling [Robert Henry Harling] (1910-2008), typographer, designer, journalist and novelist, friend of Ian Fleming and possible model for James Bond [Percy Muir (1894-1979), bookseller]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of The Glebe House, Godstone, Surrey. 17 January 1975.
£450.00

See Harling's entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 4to. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded twice. The salutation ('My dear Percy'), valediction ('Luv Robert'), and one additional word in autograph; the rest typed. He begins by thanking Muir for a copy of 'PHM 80', the volume celebrating Muir's eightieth birthday.

[Henry Livings, playwright and screenwriter.] Typed Letter Signed ('Henry Livings') to Ian McPherson

Author: 
Henry Livings (1929-1998), Lancastrian playwright and screenwriter [Ian McPherson]
Publication details: 
49 Grains Road, Delph, Oldham [Lancashire]. 18 September 1986.
£40.00

1p, 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged, folded twice. He does not have a copy of his book 'Flying Eggs', but intends 'to order a few. Since computerization, ordering is a longwinded business, but there's reasonable hope they'd arrive before the Christmas post.' He gives instruction concerning payment and postage. He makes a suggestion if McPherson should 'at any point in the future [be] tempted to buy my first book of short stories, PENNINE TALES' (go for the paperback which is cheaper and 'much better edited').

[Charles Causley, Cornish poet.] Three Typed Letters Signed (all 'Charles Causley') to Ian McPherson, discussing proposed readings, and the difficulty of fitting in 'teaching and writing comitments with other activities'.

Author: 
Charles Causley [Charles Stanley Causley] (1917-2003), Cornish poet [Ian McPherson]
Publication details: 
All three on Causley's letterhead, 2 Cyprus Well, Launceston, Cornwall. 9 December 1974; 20 July 1975; 2 December 1976.
£80.00

All three 1p, landscape 12mo. All in good condition, lightly aged. ONE: 9 December 1974. He thanks him for 'the invitation […] But as I'm teaching full-time here now, this would be very difficult to arrange as far as schools visits would be concerned. (I asked the Arts Council to take my name off the schools list, but they don't seem to have done so).' He suggests a 'reading during the holiday break, perhaps. One aimed principally at adults, I mean.' The 'London Poetry Secretariat/Arts Council link-up' might 'provide some kind of subsidy'.

[ 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.

[ 'John Gawsworth', poet and 'King of Redonda'. ] Corrected Autograph Drafts of ten poems from his collection 'Marlow Hill', including the title poem and the 'suppressed' poem 'Was'. With presentation inscription as 'Abdicated' monarch 'Juan R'..

Author: 
John Gawsworth [ pseudonym of Terence Ian Fytton Armstrong (1912-1970) ], poet and 'King Juan I' of Redonda [ Jean Fanchette (1932-1992), editor of the Paris magazine 'Two Cities' ]
Publication details: 
[ London. ] The poems published in 1941. The presentation inscription dated 16 February 1967.
£450.00

On nine loose 12mo leaves torn from an album. In fair condition, on aged and browned paper. Wrapped by Gawsworth in a larger piece of paper, on the front of which he has written in pencil the presentation inscription: 'Kenilworth | love | from | His King | J R | 16 Feb. 1967', with the following in blue ink over the 'J R': 'Abdicated | Juan R'. 'Marlow Hill' was Gawsworth's fourth collection, self-published by his Richards Press in 1941. Three of the nine leaves carry layouts of the book's title-page and prelims, with pencil notes 'Pubd 15 Oct 1941' and '33 lines to page'.

[ 'John Gawsworth', poet and 'King Juan I' of Redonda. ] Typescript of long poem 'The Passions of Juan | (Missives and Missiles)', with autograph emendations and signed note.

Author: 
John Gawsworth [ pseudonym of Terence Ian Fytton Armstrong (1912-1970) ], poet and 'King Juan I' of Redonda [ Jean Fanchette (1932-1992), editor of the Paris magazine 'Two Cities' ]
Publication details: 
No place or date. [ London, circa 1961. ]
£350.00

9pp., 8vo. In fair condition, on nine leaves of worn and creased paper, the first leaf white, the others green. Minor emendations throughout. The poem is in five sections: 'The Exhortation' (beginning: 'In the crook of my arm | Rest again, nest again.

[ Bookseller's catalogue. ] Literary Ladies of the Nineteenth Century. A Catalogue of Books: Autograph Letters: Illustrations: etc.

Author: 
Ian Hodgkins & Co. Ltd, booksellers [ English nineteenth-century women writers; British Victorian female authors ]
Publication details: 
Ian Hodgkins & Co. Ltd., Upper Vatch Mill, The Vatch, Slad, Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL6 7JY. Catalogue 81. Summer 1995.
£56.00

40pp., 8vo. Stapled in printed wraps with illustration on front cover. In fair condition, somewhat aged and worn. Hodgkin was known for his meticulous catalouging, and 500 items are described, by a range of authors, both prominent and obscure, ranging from Grace Aguilar to Mrs Mary Wood-Allen. There are sub-sections for Louisa May Alcott, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Fanny Burney, Jane Welsh Carlyle, Eliza Cook, Marie Corelli, Maria S. Cummins, Lady Elizabeth Eastlake, Maria Edgeworth, George Elliot, Mrs.

[Printed pamphlet.] The Man who saw Heaven and Hell, foretold the Date of his own Death, lived in both Worlds at the same Time for twenty-seven Years. Reprinted from The Sunday Dispatch. "What Shall Man Believe?" No. 4. March 4, 1934.

Author: 
Ian Coster [Emmanuel Swedenborg; The Campfield Press, St Albans]
Publication details: 
Printed in Great Britain by The Campfield Press, St. Albans. [1934? 1937?]
£120.00

32pp., 12mo. Full-page portrait of Swedenborg, from painting, on p.3. In brown printed wraps. In good condition, on aged paper, with corner of first leaf folded down, and slight spotting to front cover. Scarce: only three copies on COPAC, at the British Library, Oxford and the National Library of Wales; the first dated to 1934, and the other two to 1937.

Autographs of Ian Bannen, Patrick Magee, Prunella Scales and 13 others cast members of the 1958 London production of Eugene O'Neill's 'The Iceman Cometh', with Arts Theatre Club and Winter Garden Theatre programmes, tickets, cuttings and a letter.

Author: 
[1958 London production of Eugene O'Neill's 'The Iceman Cometh', featuring Ian Bannen; Patrick Magee; Michael Balfour; Prunella Scales; The Arts Theatre Club and Winter Garden Theatre, Drury Lane]
Publication details: 
The Arts Theatre Club, 6 and 7 Great Newport Street, WC2, and Winter Garden Theatre, Drury Lane, London. 1958.
£150.00

17 items, the collection in good condition, on aged paper. Item One: Autographs of sixteen individuals associated with the production, all signing to 'Sonia'. 2pp., 12mo. On bifolium removed from ruled notebook. The signatories are: Michael Bryant, Robert Hunter, Margaret Whiting, Hilda Braid, Vivian Matalon, Tony Church ('Sonia, our proletarian beauty | from hungry Hugo'), Jack MacGowran, Robert Adams, Prunella Scales ('Maggie'), Michael Balfour ('May you triumph over virtue'), Patrick Magee, Tony Robertson, Joby Blanshard, Anthony Jacobs, Lee Montagu and Ian Bannen.

Ten Typed Letters Signed and eight Autograph Letters Signed (four 'Guy S Wellby' and the rest 'Guy') from Wellby to Franklin, with an inventory and valuation, schedule, accounts and correspondence relating to Rogers' collection of snuff boxes.

Author: 
Guy Wellby, Prime Warden of the Goldsmiths' Company, adviser to Ian Fleming [D. and J. Wellby Ltd, Jewellers and Silversmiths, Garrick Street, London; Franklyn Rogers; snuff boxes]
Publication details: 
Wellby's letters between 1948 and 1967; on letterheads of D. and J. Wellby Ltd.
£200.00

The collection, consisting of 31 items in a variety of formats, is in very good condition, on lightly-aged paper, with all texts clear and complete. Wellby's correspondence with Rogers (an affluent Kent businessman and farmer, collector and dabbler in the jewellery business) reflects a relationship at once businesslike and friendly, with items being offered by Wellby on behalf of his firm, and news of items consigned to the firm by Rogers. The personal element is apparent from the first.

The Carrionflower Writ [complete run of ten issues, from 1 to 9/10 and including 2a].

Author: 
Javant Biarujia, editor [Nosukumo, Melbourne; Ian Birks; Jurate Sasnaitis, Philip Siss; Kris Hemensley; Chris Mann; Raimondo Cortese; Adrian Rawlins; Australian literature]
Publication details: 
Melbourne ('at Labassa'): Nosukumo. 1985 to 1990.
£350.00

Each issue a single broadsheet, folded twice to make eight pages. On different light shades of paper. In good condition. An energetic collection of Australian 'poetry on the margins', with unconvential typography and striking illustration. Described, on cover of issue 3, as 'An art and literary broadsheet issued on an irregular basis'. Poets include Ian Birks, Jurate Sasnaitis, Philip Sipp, Kris Hemensley, Chris Mann, Raimondo Cortese, and Adrian Rawlins. Excessively scarce: no copies of any issues in the British Library, or recorded on COPAC, let alone a complete run.

Typed Letter Signed to Leslie Bloom of the Gallery First Nighters' Club.

Author: 
Ian Wallace (born 1919), English baritone singer connected with Flanders and Swann
Publication details: 
29 October 1956; on letterhead 27 Stormont Road, Highgate, London, N.6.
£18.00

Two pages, on letterhead of roughly 13.5 x 17.5 cms. He has sent a wire accepting the 'kind invitation'. '[A]s you can imagine we are rehearsing all day and every day at the present [...] The only thing thaht could stop me being with you is that we are, I understand, to record the "Fanny" music for a long-playing record on that Saturday'.

A co-operative [booksellers'] catalogue' entitled 'Detective Fiction: A Century of Crime: First and Early Editions'.

Author: 
R. A. Brimmell; Boris Harding-Edgar (Charles Rare Books)
Publication details: 
Hastings and Hildenborough; [circa 1966].
£120.00

Forty-four pages, octavo, with two-page leaf of addenda loosely inserted. Four pages illustrating seventeen pictorial covers on art paper. In printed card wraps. A worn and creased copy of an influential catalogue, issued at a time when, as the introduction points out 'catalogues devoted to detective fiction [were] something of a rarity in the book trade'.

Albert Rutherston: A Catalogue of the Illustrated Books, Periodicals, Pamphlets, Christmas Cards, Pantomimes, Diaries and Almanacks, Pattern Papers, Ornaments and Autographed Letters in the Collections of Manchester Polytechnic Library.

Author: 
Ian Rogerson [Albert Rutherston (1881-1953), artist and illustrator; Sir William Rothenstein]
Publication details: 
Manchester: Manchester Polytechnic Library, 1988.
£10.00

Quarto: ix + 21 pages. Stapled. In original cream wraps, with colour cover illustration by Helen Taylor. Full-page reproduction of drawing of Rutherston by his brother Sir William Rothenstein. Introduction places Rutherston in the tradition of Edward Gordon Craig and Claud Lovat Fraser. Copies of the second edition (1992) recorded by COPAC, but not at BL or Bodley.

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