NOVEL

Both items in good condition, lightly aged and worn. ONE: Autograph Letter Signed, dated '19th. Dec.' 4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. As 'the public is not apparently able to rise to the occasion', the recipient's appeal should be helped, but she is 'unable to help anything just now. I have been most seriously involved in the Australian

2pp., 16mo. Bifolium. Aged and worn, with top part of second leaf torn away. Reads: 'My dearest friend | I attempted to see you to day but was not able to reach your house – Will you come in charity and sit with us two hours on Thursday evening | En famille | We will give you a well aired room, a little <?>, and your sons shall have a quadrille | Ever yours | Charles R. Maturin', Maturin was the great-uncle of Oscar Wilde, who adopted the name 'Sebastian Melmoth' during his self-exile on the continent.

1p., 4to. In fair condition, aged and worn. The breaking open of the wafer has resulted in slight loss at the beginning of Maturin's signature. Addressed on reverse to 'William Spooner Esqre | at Mr Millikin's | Grafton Street'. (His not writing of 'Dublin' implies that he is writing from the same place.) Maturin was the great-uncle of Oscar Wilde, who adopted the name 'Sebastian Melmoth' during his self-exile on the continent.

2pp., 12mo. In good condition. He thanks her for 'the very pleasant glimpse of yourself and your family which I got last Saturday to Monday'. He hopes she will excuse the delay in acknowledging her 'kind and graceful hospitality'.

1p., 16mo. In fair condition, aged and with bands of glue at head and tail on reverse. He thanks her for her note, but he cannot join her party. 'I wish I could!' Postscript: 'I hope you are quite well again!'

2pp., 12mo. Aged and worn, with thin line of glue causing damage to a few words of text. Addressed to 'Dear Harington'. His 'plans have all been upset by this ghastly affair at Bedford, of which you no doubt read in the papers'. He only returned from Bedford the previous night, and will have to go to the funeral there on the coming Monday, so they will have to 'put things off a bit'. He has 'arranged to fish with "Mr. Matheson" on the Didder', and suggests dates around that time for meeting.

'The Ugly Picture' was L. P. Hartley's final short story. It appeared in the Christmas issue of the Spectator, 23 December 1972, a few days before his death. There is a synopsis in Adrian Wright's 'Foreign Country: The Life of L. P. Hartley' (1996). Neither of the two drafts present here corresponds with the published version, whose ending, for example, has been heavily reworked from the ending to the later of the two drafts. The two items are both in good condition, each on loose leaves (one side only) of paper attached with a safety pin.

Gilruth was the author of seven crime novels: 'Sweet Revenge' (1951), 'Death in Ambush' (1952), 'Postscript to Penelope' (1954), 'A Corpse for Charybdis' (1956), 'To this Favour' (1957), 'Drown Her Remembrance' (1961) and 'The Snake is Living Yet' (1963). The material in this collection is in good overall condition, lightly aged and worn. Most of the material is laid down on 41pp. of a 25 x 38 cm. album (ownership signature on front pastedown), with press cuttings of reviews grouped around the cut-down dustwrappers of the first six of Gilruth's books.

On 5.5 x 12.5 cm strip torn from the foot of a letter. In good condition, lightly aged. Beneath the typed words 'Sincerely yours,' is the firm bold signature 'Sinclair Lewis'.

21 items. In good condition, lightly aged, held together with a brass stud. Deeping's eight items of correspondence - all signed 'Warwick Deeping' - total 9pp. His wife's three letters total 4pp. One of Deeping's letters is in its envelope, addressed by him to 'Miss Margaret Greenwood | 15 Horsham Road | Bexleyheath | Kent'. The copies of Greenwood's typed letters, totalling 16pp., date from between 27 July 1949 and 22 July 1950, bookending the whole correspondence. They are written on the backs of discarded typed drafts of pages from Greenwood's screenplays.

A total of 50 items, all but the three earliest of Strong's letters held together with a brass stud. The collection in good overall condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. Strong's 24 letters total 37pp., with the early letters signed 'L A G Strong' and the later ones 'Leonard', and occasional variant signatures in between ('Leonard Strong', 'LAGS'). The copies of Greenwood's 26 letters (two in autograph, the rest typed) total 32pp. An interesting correspondence, in which Strong responds with tact and patience to his inexperienced correspondent's proposals and actions.

243 numbered pp., 8vo, dustjacket, sl chipped and rubbed, condition of book v.g.+ INSCRIBED By Author as follows (front free endpaper): "To Allard | In memory of the days on Shift 2, + how frightfully brave we were when all the mines in Nova Scotia caved in on our heads. | Mavis || Paris | Christmas 79".

1p., 4to. In fair condition, on aged paper, with creasing and wear at head. Written in Waugh's close, distinctive hand. Reads: 'Dear Miss Marshall-Hall | It was nice of you to write. I didn't go on the Invalids tour this year. It can't have been the same thing without Milhanger. | Sincerely Yrs | Alec Waugh /'. The reference is presumably to Milhanger, the Surrey country house designed by Harold Falkner.

12mo, 134 pp each on one side of a ring-punched loose leaf, with the leaves attached by green thread within an original worn buckram binder with discoloured endpapers. The leaves themselves in good condition on lightly-aged paper; with those of the draft story ruled in red, and sometimes utilizing scrap paper (for example the blank reverses of prospectuses for Wright's books and scrap pages from Blake Society material).

417pp., 8vo. A fair copy, on lightly aged paper, a little loose in worn publisher's brown cloth binding, with gilt title on spine and decorative cross on front board, and green patterned endpapers. Blind stamp of the W. H. Smith Library, Strand, to front free endpaper. According to Hammond's biographer Bonnie Ellen Blustein, 'The complex plot of Doctor Grattan revolved around the relation of insanity to neurological impairment, and touched on the subjects of neuralgia, headache, kleptomania, and delusions.' This English edition of Hammond's book is now uncommon.

Jackson/Ashley A272. Unpublished. 43 pages in A4 (unpaginated title and pages 1-42). Perfect bound with black cloth spine in light-green wraps with title duplicated on front wrap. Very good, with top corner of front wrap slightly dogeared. With four photocopied A4 pages of typescript loosely inserted: the first carrying 'The Naked Tongue' by Diane Miller; the second 'Religious Views of Life'; the third, headed 'Remembering Henry Miller: A Collage', giving details of cast and crew; the fourth headed 'Celebrating Henry Miller: A Collage includes selections from the following:'. Scarce.

Hf. lea., ]xxxii].766.162. Formerly a poor copy rescued by sympathetic rebacking, wear and tear and some internal damage (staining, one blank endpaper torn with some loss of page), text complete and clear. Heavily annotated throughout in English and occasional Greek by Frederick W. Farrar whose bookplate when he was at Trinity College, Cambridge, is loosely inserted and whose signature appears on the recto of the front free endpaper ("Frederic W. Farra/ Trin. Coll.

8vo. 56 pages followed by blank leaf. Unbound: stitched as issued. A good copy, although somewhat grubby and with some wear, sl. chipping and creasing and a few closed tears. No copy of this important item is in the British Library, its absence being supplied by a microfilm of the copy in the library of the London School of Economics.

1p., 8vo. Lightly aged, and with creasing and closed tear at head. He will be pleased to autograph any copies of his book which Pettitt would like to send, and concludes: 'Are there any Rankin's in Rochford now? They are related to me'.

4pp., 16mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly-aged. She assumes that her work ('Celebrated Friendships', 1861), 'published with Messrs Hogg', has attracted his attention. 'Now about my novel, about which you have been very kind. Till the storm of adverse criticism is over, I think it will be much better to delay the work. Any notice it may have, will be cursory, & slight.' She wishes to postpone publication: 'My name will not appear in any book next year, that I know of, at present.' She will be in Derby for a few days, and will be happy to hear from him.

1p., 12mo. In good condition, lightly-aged, with minor traces of labels from mounting at head and foot. Having 'just returned from rather a long trip to the Mediterranean and found much arrears of correspondence' he can't write to Carr fully, but suggests that he call on him one day that week. 'I do not promise that I will do anything to swell Messrs Cassells bank a/c - I am rather displeased with them.' Carr's reputation was made by his 'Cruise of the Cachalot' (1898), a semi-autobiographical account of a whaling expedition.

2pp., 8vo. On aged and worn paper. The letter begins: 'Dearest Geoffrey | She is quite convinced you were Pourponne! - says it was given to her before she saw your photographs - (about which she says some very gratifying things!) How does this strike you?!' The woman is 'hunting for a confirmatory portrait'. While Lehmann herself has 'only the haziest impression of Pourponne', she does know that 'they were mutually devoted' She exclaims: 'Oh do hurry up & start this book!

On 2.5 x 6.5 slip of paper cut from the end of a letter. Laid down on a small piece of black card. In good condition, lightly aged. In a small tight hand. Reads 'Very truly yours | M. O. W. Oliphant'. With cutting of part of an article. featurinng a photograph of the novelist.

The inscription is on a 22.5 cm square piece of card, and reads: 'Eden Phillpotts - somewhat battered, but still telling stories. | May 1950.' Laid down on the card, above the inscription, is a 14 x 18 cm black and white photograph, depicting Phillpotts, book in hand, standing in front of a bookcase, which has apparently been cut by Phillpotts from a magazine. The item is in fair condition, lightly-aged and worn.

On 12.5 x 9 cm piece of cream paper. In good condition, with light signs of age. Boldly written and underlined, at the top of the page, reading 'Eric Linklater.' No other writing on either side of the leaf.

1p., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Reads: 'With Mary Maxwell's love & best wishes, & many thanks for the charmingly illustrated Xmas book of The Children in the Wood | M. E Braddon | January 1. 1878.'

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, on aged paper. He thanks him for sending 'Idylls of Spain' (by Rowland Thirlmere, 1897), which 'Mr. Milner' will settle with him for, and states that he is 'interested in the subject and would be glad of a note of any books you happen to come across on this subject'. In 1903 Crockett would publish 'The Adventurer in Spain'.

The four letters in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Also present are carbons of four letters from Pitt to Household (three from 1974 and one from 1981). ONE: ALS. 11 April 1974. 2pp., 4to. He is delighted 'to be appreciated by a fellow craftsman' and is sending a copy of his 'Time to Kill', which he asks him to accept, as he has 'a number of them taking up useful shelf room'. TWO: TLS. 24 April 1974. 2pp., 4to.

3pp., 12mo. Writing in a difficult hand, he thanks him for his very curious & interesting letter respecting Chr. Smart, of whose birthplace I had been previously ignorant, tho' his name was not unknown to me in connection with Horace'.

On 5 x 11cm. piece of paper, torn from the conclusion to a typed letter. In good condition, lightly aged. Reads: '[...] myself, you would write to me. | Yours very truly, | Edgar Wallace'.