Six Typed Letters Signed, one Autograph Letter Signed, four Typed Notes Signed and one Autograph Note Signed from Compton Mackenzie to the military historian Antony Brett-James. With one letter by Mackenzie's wife, and a collection of press cuttings.

Author: 
Sir Compton Mackenzie [Sir Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie] (1883-1972), Scottish writer [Antony Brett-James (1920-1984), 5th Indian Division Royal Signals, military historian, Sandhurst lecturer]
Publication details: 
Written between 1948 and 1955. Most on Mackenzie's letterhead, 'Denchworth Manor, by Wantage, Berkshire'.
£350.00
SKU: 10746

All texts clear and complete. Autograph item with some creasing, otherwise in good condition on lightly-aged paper. Ten items signed 'Compton Mackenzie', and two ''. Eight of the items each one page of landscape 8vo; one 8vo, 1 p; another 12mo, 1 p; the autograph note 4to, 1 p; and the card 16mo, 1 p. The first item (4to, 1 p, in autograph) is dated 22 September 1948. Having met Brett-James he thanks him for sending the proofs of his war memoir 'Report My Signals' (London: Hennel Locke Ltd, 1948): 'I was much impressed by it, and supported it strongly for a Book Society Recommendation. But please keep this to yourself, because other members of the committee still have to give their opinion.' Other topics include Mackenzie's military history 'Eastern Epic' (1951), which he admits is 'going to be rather choppy', Brett-James's '5 Div. History', 'Piggy Heath' and Brett-James looking through (in 1955) 'the first seven chapters' of one of Mackenzie's books. Three letters from 1952 concern Brett-James's attempt to join the publishers Chatto & Windus. In the first (27 March) Mackenzie writes: 'I have written to Chattos about you, but I don't expect there'll be any chance of a vacancy there because Piers Raymond and Peter Cochrane are now Directors and both young men. Their reader is Cecil Day Lewis. I sympathise with your wish to be with them because they are really delightful people to be with, but I don't think you must have much hope.' In the same letter he refers to the loss of 'reading sight of my left eye'. The letter from Mackenzie's second wife (landscape 12mo, 1 p), signed 'Chrissie MacSween', has a square of paper torn from the bottom right-hand corner. Despite this, the text is legible. Apologising for 'this seeming familiarity' she is returning Brett-James's railway ticket, 'which Kenny [i.e. Mackenzie] found on the floor after you'd gone'. She speculates that he may be receive 'the full refund on it'. Also fourteen newspaper cuttings by and about Mackenzie, from between 1938 and 1962, all in good condition on lightly-aged paper. Including two of Mackenzie's 'Sidelight' columns from the Spectator, both 1953, and a 1938 article by him from the Listener entitled 'I Became an Author'. Also an appreciation by Joyce Weiner in John o'London's Weekly, 1953, 'Seventy Happy Years', and 'An Appreciation [of Mackenzie's 'On Moral Courage'] by Sir Charles Petrie', Illustrated London News, 1962. From the papers of Anthony Brett-James.