MODERNIST

[John Nash, prominent English painter.] Autograph Signature.

Author: 
John Nash [John Northcote Nash, RA] (1893-1977), prominent English painter
John Nash
Publication details: 
No place or date.
£35.00
John Nash

A good example of Nash’s attractive and distinctive signature ‘John Nash’ on a very light dotted line, a piece of paper cut into an oval roughly 5 cm wide and 2.5 cm high. In good condition, lightly aged, laid down on an irregularly-shaped piece of card. See Image

[Elliott Carter, American modernist composer.] Publicity photograph with Signed Autograph Inscription.

Author: 
Elliott Carter [Elliott Cook Carter Jr.] (1908-2012), American modernist composer
Carter
Publication details: 
Dated by Carter 28 March 1972. No place.
£150.00
Carter

Black and white print of an 11.5 x 15 cm head and shoulders portrait of a smiling Carter on 12.5 x 21 cm piece of shiny paper. In good condition. Beneath the portrait, in red ink, Carter writes: ‘for Michael Robuck / Elliott Carter, March 28, ’72.’ On the reverse, in another hand, is the note ‘4. 3. 72 / Elliott Carter Composer’. See Image.

[John Calder, London avant-garde publisher.] Three Autograph Cards Signed and a Typed Letter Signed to Philip Dosse, publisher of ‘Books and Bookmen’, regarding reviews he is writing because of ‘financial troubles tempting enough to do a Stonehouse'.

Author: 
John Calder [John Mackenzie Calder] (1927-2018), London avant-garde publisher of Scottish-Canadian descent [Calder and Boyars; Better Books; Philip Dosse (1925-1980), publisher ‘Books and Bookmen’]
Publication details: 
TLS: 17 July 1974; on letterhead of Calder and Boyars Ltd, 18 Brewer Street, London. All three ACS on his letterhead, 6 Dalmeny House, 9 Thurloe Place, London SW7; one dated 15 January 1975 the others undated.
£180.00

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 typed letter is in fair condition, aged and worn; the three cards are in very good condition. The signature on the four items is little more than a squiggle. Of the three cards, only Item Four below is addressed.

[ 'Erik Designer' [ Erik Nordgreen ]', Danish stage and costume designer. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('Erik') to the London bookseller Barry Duncan, with two handbill advertisements, one on coloured card (with portrait drawing) and one a handbill.

Author: 
'Erik Designer' [ Erik Nordgreen (1921-1987) ], Danish stage and costume designer, based in Bootham, York [ 'Formerly with Tobis (Continental) Films' ]
Publication details: 
Letter from a Blackpool address, on his letterhead with 'Perm. Address . . . Eastfield House, 32 Grosvenor Terrace, Bootham, York'. 6 April 1946. Handbill with same York address; card with both Blackpool and York addresses.
£150.00

ONE: Letter: 1p., 4to. In fair condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. He asks Duncan to look out for books in a number of fields, beginning with ones 'on old-time stagecraft giving technical data & information on trick effects, transformation scenes, etc, with particular reference to pantomime'. TWO: Advertisement. Printed in black on one side of a 14 x 26.5 cm piece of blue card. Folded twice to make three 14 x 8.5 cm pages in concertina. In stamped postmarked envelope, with his device printed in red on cover, addressed to Duncan at the Thule Gallery, St Martin's Court.

[ George J. Firmage, literary critic. ] Folder of material relating to e. e. Cummings and his wife (christmas card from them, pamphlet by Holley Cantine inscribed by her, cuttings, offprint, photographs), with poem inscribed to him by Oscar Williams.

Author: 
George James Firmage (1928-2005), authority on e. e. Cummings [ Edward Estlin Cummings (1894-1962); Marion Morehouse Cummings (1906-69); 'Oscar Williams' [ pen-name of Oscar Kaplan (1900-1964)] ]
Publication details: 
Most items from New York City. Dating from between 1962 and 1972.
£320.00

George James Firmage was born in New York; attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1947-48) and College of the City of New York (1949); BA, New York University, 1952; pursued graduate study, University of Massachusetts, 1952-54; publications supervisor in advertising and marketing services department, First National City Bank, New York, 1954; wrote several books, including E.E. Cummings: a Miscellany (1958) and E.E. Cummings: a Bibliography; editor of A Garland for Dylan Thomas (1963) and of E.E. Cummings' Three Plays and a Ballet (1967).

[Violet Eleanor Scott-James, wife of Rolfe Arnold Scott-James, editor of the 'New Weekly'.] Long Autograph Letter Signed ('V. E. S. J.') [to the Irish journalist Robert Lynd], with reference to Wyndham Lewis, Charlotte Mew, Ivy Low and Mary Crosbie.

Author: 
Violet Eleanor Scott-James [née Brooks] (c.1886-1942), wife of Rolfe Arnold Scott-James (1878-1959), editor of the New Weekly [Robert Lynd (1879-1949); Percy Wyndham Lewis (1882-1957)]
Publication details: 
Addressed from 'Dunedin', Lower Rock Garden, Brighton, on letterhead of 4 Colville Square [London], W. 15 July 1914.
£120.00

4pp., 4to. In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper, with short closed tears at heads of both leaves. The recipient is not named, but the letter is from the Lynd family papers. Robert Lynd was in St Ives at the time of writing, and the letter begins: 'I'm so glad you are in such a nice place & that the children can join you there. They will love it. London gets so odious by the 15th of July. I came her e last week as I was very tired, & sick of the stuffy feeling of everything.

[Modernist magazine.] Six issues of 'Twentieth Century Verse' (10, 11, 12-13, 14, 17, 18), with cover by Wyndham Lewis and contributions by George Barker, Delmore Schwartz, John Berryman, Allen Tate.

Author: 
Julian Symons, editor of the London modernist magazine 'Twentieth Century Verse' [Wyndham Lewis; George Barker; Roy Fuller; Robert Conquest; Allen Tate; Delmore Schwartz; John Berryman
Publication details: 
[The Editor, 45 St, George's Square, London, S.W.1.] Published between May 1938 (No. 10) and June/July 1939 (No. 18). [Diemer & Reynolds Ltd., printers, MIdland Road, Bedford.]
£80.00

Each of the six issues in its original card wraps, the first four with cover design by Wyndham Lewis. Internally good, on lightly aged paper, in aged and worn wraps. A total of 176pp., 8vo. No.10 (May 1938), pp.29-54. No.11 ('Long poems by George Barker and Kenneth Allott', July 1938), pp.55-78. No.12-13 ('an attempt to get inside the covers of a small magazine a number of the best, and most representative, living poets born in America', October 1938), pp.79-118. No.14 (December 1938), pp.119-142. No.17 (April/May 1939), pp.1-26. No.18 ('A Special Number', June/July 1939), pp.27-62.

[Marianne Moore, American modernist poet.] Printed invitation to 'A Poetry Reading and Commentary' by 'Marianne Craig Moore | Distinguished Alumna of Bryn Mawr College'.

Author: 
Marianne Moore [Marianne Craig Moore] (1887-1972), American Modernist poet and editor of 'The Dial'
Publication details: 
At Cooper Union, 7th Street and 4th Avenue, New York. 20 January 1958.
£56.00

Printed on one side of a 9.5 x 15 cm piece of green paper. In good condition, lightly-aged and sunned, with one corner slightly-dogeared. The text reads: 'Marianne Craig Moore | Distinguished Alumna of Bryn Mawr College | will present | A Poetry Reading and Commentary | on Monday, January 20, 1958 | at 8:30 o'clock | at Cooper Union | 7th Street and 4th Avenue, New York | Admission free'.

[Printed pamphlet.] Shakespeare and the Stoicism of Seneca. (An Address read before the Shakespeare Association 18th March, 1927). By T. S. Eliot.

Author: 
T. S. Eliot [The Shakespeare Association, London]
Publication details: 
London: Published for the Shakespeare Association by Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, Amen House, Warwick Square, E.C. 1927.
£85.00

8vo, 17 + [i] pp. Stapled. In original grey wraps. Aged and worn copy of a scarce item.

Engraving ('ACTS XXVII XXXV') by Eric Gill from a drawing by David Jones; with long typewritten transcript from a letter from Jones to Evan Gill.

Author: 
David Jones; Eric Gill; Evan Gill
Publication details: 
The engraving dated by Jones (in the letter) to around 1935. The letter dated 22 November 1957.
£400.00

The engraving illustrates the biblical passage describing an incident during the wreck off Crete of a ship carrying Saint Paul. Acts 27:35: 'And when he had thus spoken, he took bread, and gave thanks to God in presence of them all: and when he had broken it, he began to eat.' Printed on one side of a piece of paper, 28 x 19 cm, with one rough edge. A striking image, irregularly shaped, with white lines against a black background, showing centurions and others on the deck of a ship on a stormy sea, with land in the distance.

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