[John Gere, Keeper of Prints and Drawings, British Museum.] Autograph transcriptions of 16 communications from E. H. W. Meyerstein, with unpublished poem by Gere on his death and other matter. With a copy of Watson's selection of Meyerstein's letters

One: Holograph poem by Gere in red ink on slip of paper. Apparently unpublished, it reads: 'I.M. E.HWM | buried Hampstead 18. 9. '52 | Grave scholar of a Grays Inn cell, | Gay naturalist of Norfolk fen, | Divion [sic, corrected in pencil to 'Division'] now ordains farewell. | I shall not see your like again. | JG'. Items Two to Seventeen: Sixteen transcriptions of letters and notes from Meyerstein to John Gere (as 'J G'). Each on a separate piece or slip of paper, and all written out in red ink. Possibly written out for Watson's use, and returned on the publication of his selection (which contains four Meyerstein letters to Gere). Item Eighteen: Transcription by Gere of letter from Meyerstein to him, dated 7 July 1950. 1p., 4to. Referring to Item Nineteen, Meyerstein writes: 'I never realized before how hard it is to speak critically of work, infused with personality, that goes so near the hart as this does to mine. I shall understand if you can't use it, but it is the best I can do, and I thank you for giving me the chance.' Item Nineteen: Transcription by Gere of letter from Meyerstein to 'T. I F A Esq [i.e. T. I. F. Armstrong]'. 2pp., 4to. Critical of his poetic efforts, and beginning: 'I have read through the black book and found nothing in it. One piece has a decadent Wratislavia flavour (p22) but I doubt if it is worth keeping. I am worried about you, so far as writing poetry is concerned, because I don't feel your heart is really in it. These refrains are awful. [...] If you merely want to write a poem that finds its way into 1000 anthologies devil take you. [...] If I knew nothing of you and merely read the contents of the black book I should imagine that you had read nothing but songs and jingles in the newspapers. [...] It all comes down to this: you must read before you write, and read not as a bibliographer, a measurer-up of books, but as a student who wishes to find out how certain effects are obtained, and not imitate them but think out others equally good.' Item Twenty (from which the recipient of Item Nineteen has been identified): Envelope, with stamps and postmark, with typed address to Meyerstein at Magdalen College, Oxford, deleted and readdressed by him to '1246619 Sgt. T. I. F. Armstrong | Section 17 H.Q. Base Air Forces | S. E. Asia'. Items Twenty-one to Twenty-three: Three newspaper cuttings, including Meyerstein's Times obituary (13 September 1952) and a review of his 'Of My Early Life' from the Listener, 9 January 1958. Item Twenty-four: Printed prospectus for Item Twenty-five. 4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. 'Printed by The Garden City Press Ltd., Letchworth, Hertfordshire.' Item Twenty-five: Copy of 'Some Letters of E. H. W. Meyerstein', edited by Rowland Watson. A fair copy, in worn and aged dustwrapper. With pencil notes by Gere on the back endpapers and flap of dustwrapper, and a further 2pp., 12mo, of pencil notes by him on a loosely-inserted leaf.