Autograph Letter Signed "Stephen Spender" to Valentine Swain, FRCS, explaining his jokey depiction of Downing College, Cambridge. With original envelope.

Two pages, 12mo, good condition. He explainsthat his jokey depiction of Downing College in his novel is influenced by Dr F.R. Leavis having "intervened to make the secretary & the Literary Society withdraw an invitation for me to address that Society - so it was a private joke with myself to make the rather objectionable Dr Stockmannjjj go to Downing College where Dr Leavis was a kind of dictator. A poor joke in bad taste." He explains who Dr Stockmann was based on. In a postscript he speculates that Swain had met one of his brothers in 1942.