TARKA

[Lawrence of Arabia: unpublished personal recollections of Henry Williamson, author of ‘Tarka the Otter’.] Autograph Typescript by Williamson, with one Autograph Manuscript emendation, of passage from memoir.

Author: 
Henry Williamson (1895-1977), novelist, author of ‘Tarka the Otter’ [T. E. Lawrence [Thomas Edward Lawrence; ‘Lawrence of Arabia’] (1888-1935), author of ‘The Seven Pillars of Wisdom’]
Publication details: 
No date or place. (1930s or 1940s?)
£150.00

From the Henry Williamson papers. The present text does not feature in Williamson’s 1941 memoir of Lawrence ‘Genius of Friendship’, and appears to be unpublished. (According to Williamson’s entry in the Oxford DNB, the publication in 1927 of ‘Tarka the Otter’ ‘attracted the attention of T. E. Lawrence, whose letter of praise started a correspondence and friendship between the two.

[Henry Williamson, novelist and ruralist, author of ‘Tarka the Otter’.] Long typewritten description of his farm, Bank House, Botesdale, Suffolk, with autograph emendations, intended to aid its sale, but surprisingly readable.

Author: 
Henry Williamson (1895-1977), English novelist, naturalist and ruralist, best-known for his book ‘Tarka the Otter’
Williamson
Publication details: 
No date or place. [1950; Bank House, Botesdale, Suffolk.]
£180.00
Williamson

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. According to Anne Williamson’s 1995 biography, Williamson decided on the spot to purchase the farm at Bank House, Botesdale, Suffolk, when his car broke down across the road from it in July 1945. The purchase price was £1700. Five years later he decided that the farm ‘could be honourably sold and he could become a full-time writer again’. It was sold in September 1950 for £2,600, although, as Anne Williamson notes, and the present item makes clear, a higher price had previously been considered. The present item is a 3pp, 4to.

Syndicate content