Two Autograph Letters Signed ('Maurice') from writer and British Council official Maurice Cardiff to Felicity Rhodes, the first letter accompanied by a typed poem by Cardiff, and the second by an Autograph Poem by him titled 'A Winter Casualty'.

All items in good condition. The letters on blue paper, and each in a stamped, postmarked envelope, addressed to 'Mrs Felicity Rhodes | North Lodge | 128 Banbury Road | Oxford'. Letter One (29 May 1995): 2pp., 12mo. He thanks her for typing the poem, which is 'only just the first part of a rather long one and doesn't really quite stand on its own - not that the whole thing comes off except for a few lines here and there.' he has 'never thought of having any Poems published', as he is 'only too aware of how sadly they limp along'. He has only shown them to 'one or two friends'. He would have liked to have been 'like the Greek Alexandrian Poet Cavaffy [sic] who used to carry copies of his latest poems in his pocket to distribute among his friends. But then he was a very great poet and his friends must have felt very privileged.' He has been 'very impressed' by what he has 'glimpsed' of Rhodes's own poems. Accompanied by a typescript (by Rhodes?) of an untitled poem. 1p., 8vo. Headed in pencil: 'MAURICE CARDIFF.' It begins: 'Come to the edge and watch | The sickle winged sea birds, the slow | Implacable onrush of incoming sea | Beat on the rock bed and seawrack below.' Letter Two (4 February 1996): 2pp., 12mo. He has enjoyed reading her manuscript, which is 'full of fascinating facts and all so well written and clearly presented'. If she intends it to be 'a history of the dance in relation to the theatre' he wonders why she 'begins with the Etruscans and not the Greeks who had both'. He goes on to discuss the 'frescoes at Tarquinium', and is pleased at the news that she is 'getting back to painting'. 'I hope you are enjoying the dark ages.' In a postscript he explains that he is enclosing a 'rather poem prompted by the recent snow.' Accompanied by an Autograph Poem by Cardiff, 1p., 12mo, titled 'A Winter Casualty'. 20 lines arranged in four five-line stanzas. The first stanza reads: 'The flakes are falling fast | I sit by the fire and recall | Such snow-falls in the past | The snow-man and giant ball | That for more than a month might last.'