MOSCOW

The parallel which Bertrand Russell showed between Marxism and Christianity is apparent in this piece of quasi-religious propaganda, which presumably emanates from the Communist Party of Great Britain. It is printed in red on one side of a 20 x 29 cm piece of shiny paper, scarcely thicker than tracing paper. Lightly aged, and with creasing and wear to extremities. The text, which translates part of a letter sent by Stalin to the Rabochaya Gazeta on the first anniversary of Stalin’s death, reads as follows: ‘Remember, love and study Lenin, our teacher and leader.

1p, landscape 12mo. Aged, worn and lightly discoloured. Laid down on larger leaf removed from an album. The text, all in Randolph’s hand, reads: ‘Pay to Jaqueline [sic] P. Taylor or bearer Fifty four Dollars 84 Cents / John Randolph of Roanoke / Decr. 22d. 1829. / To the Cashier of the Bank of Virginia’. Despite the name Jacqueline P. Taylor of Richmond City, Virginia, was male. See image.

The two translations, in the same original red leather notebook, totalling 226pp., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper, in worn binding. The first translation in the volume is a fair copy, without corrections, of a work published in French in 1823 as 'La V?rit? sur l'Incendie de Moscou; par le Comte Rostopchine' (Paris: Ponthieu). Neither Curling's nor any other English translation appears to have been published. The second translation (the printed version of which is the first of the two pamphlets) is heavily corrected, with seven pages of additions loosely inserted.

Biographical details regarding Humphreys are hard to come by. He features in two Times reports of the indisposition of the pianist Cyril Smith in Moscow in 1956 (8 May and 9 June). On his award of the OBE in the 1958 New Years Honours List he was described as 'lately First Secretary and Medical Officer at Her Majesty's Embassy in Moscow'. On his retirement in 1987 he was described as 'Col. T. V. Humphreys, O.B.E., M.B., B.Ch., B.A.O.

3pp., 8vo. Bifolium. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. Unsigned, but certainly in Croly's hand. The first page is headed: '- for tho' the Old Law was established in the promises of temporal prosperity, yet the gospel is founded in temporal adversity'. The three extracts, fiercely critical of the French emperor, follow over a total of 61 lines, with a few minor emendations.

12mo, 8 pp. Slight damage from rust of paperclip, otherwise good, on aged paper. Priced at '0d'. Photograph of Ehrenburg on p.3. The slug carries the code 'CP/C/31/4/43.', the last three elements indicating the date of publication. Scarce: COPAC only lists a microfilm reproduction at the British Library.

All items very good. The typed letters are both 4to, 1 p, and the autograph letters both 12mo, 1 p. Three items bear the Society's stamp. Letter One (typed, 24 September 1915, 10 lines): He will have 'great pleasure in addressing the Society of Arts', but there is 'one point which must be settled carefully beforehand'.