[Laurence Whistler, poet, artist and glass engraver.] Two Autograph Letters Signed ('Laurence Whistler' and 'Laurence') to playwright Christopher Fry, one expressing admiration of his work, the other a moving tribute to his friend Christopher Hassall

Both 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Written in Whistler's calligraphic hand. ONE: 13 December 1961. He will be 'so pleased' if Fry will accept a copy of his poems, 'which I like to send you because of my admiration for your work, and sense of sympathy with what you express, or create'. TWO: 21 August 1963. 33 lines of text, written following the death of his friend Christopher Hassall. Fry's letter gave him 'a sense of warmth', and he agrees that a sonnet by Hassall is 'one of the very best things he did - & that it was written for me is a lasting pleasure – like the thought of his friendship for nearly 30 years. I don't know how to do without that friendship. I have so very few close friends, hardly more than one other nearly as close as Chris. And his rich, loving and humorous companionship was a kind of nourishment that leaves one perpetually hungry. I expect you feel all these things. I wish we could have stayed at Tonford [Hassall's country house] together.' He expresses a desire 'to do a selection of his poems, one day: & I think it's the thing he would like most. Very difficult to select, of course: old Chris being so profuse, & many good strokes in not always good poems.' He ends by stating that the poem 'Hartley's Vicarage' in the collection 'The Slow Night' ('his best book, on the whole'), 'in its uneasy mixed mood, is so very Christopher'.