[Christopher Fry, playwright.] Fry's own copy of his book 'Can You Find Me: A Family History', with autograph notes, containing correspondence from relatives, photographs, and a typed transcript of a radio interview, with autograph additions by Fry.

The book is 272pp, 8vo. A good copy, lightly aged, with binding sunned along top, in worn dustwrapper. The volume contains – along with autograph corrections of incidentals – a couple of autograph notes in pencil, one of a minor nature and the other reading: 'Daisy & Charles attended the funeral – March 26 – as recorded in Archibald Marshall's diary'; also one minor emendation in ink. The material inserted in the volume is described below. Accompanying the volume is a long typewritten radio script of an interview between Fry and 'Leslie', with autograph additions in pencil by Fry. It is a pre-broadcast guide script rather than a transcript, as the typed text addresses 'Geoff' (editor or sound engineer?) and Fry himself on two occasions, the first a request for 'the relevant speech please, Christopher', the second asking for information about Fry's mother (see below). 3pp, folio. Paginated 1-3, but without title or date. From the text the interview was conducted in 1979, probably for the BBC. A long introductory paragraph begins: 'Leslie: It is perhaps superfluous to introduce the man who is about to talk to us of his childhood. It would be enough to mention merely the title of one of his plays - “The Lady's Not For Burning”, or “A Sleep of Prisoners” - and we know at once that we are to hear Christopher Fry'. The opening paragraph concludes: 'More recently, however, last year in fact, he has published a very fine autobiography – or, as he calls it, a family history. It's called CAN YOU FIND ME. Just like that, no question mark; a puzzling plain statement, a simple enigma. Christopher, can we find you in those pages?' Possibly intended as a guide for the editor or sound engineer, as the text ends: '(Geoff; FADE AFTER ….any feeling of insufficiency....in Christopher's last speech. I do not want any comment from me....Leslie)'. Fry's two pencil additions are as follows. On p.1, in reply to the typed invitation 'CHRISTOPHER: (A brief memory of your mother here, could you?)': 'Well, I don't know that she was. She was at the centre of course, but her days were full of running the house & looking after lodges & my Aunt Ada. I can't remember her ever particularly encouraging or discouraging me in anything. I'm afraid I rather took her for granted.' The second autograph note by Fry is at the end of the text, regarding an incident on p.263 of the book: 'Maybe in the plays I have written I've been trying to get rid of that guilt, to make up for that betrayal of light ever since.' Loosely inserted in the book are a number of items. One is a slip of paper, carrying autograph notes by Fry on Bow family. Also, five letters from four different individuals. Letter One: Two-page ALS from 'René' of Oakland Farm, Crickley Hill, 30 August 1982. Identified by Fry in a note: 'from Rene (Chandler) Harris. | see Can You Find Me | p.203 “I stole a pair of scissors & cut off a little girl's hair”'. The letter is addressed to 'Dear Kit', and gives personal and family news, unconnected with the book. Letter Two: Five-page ALS from Margaret G. Carus-Wilson, dated from Chichester, 3 November 1982, regarding Fry's family's 'association with Leamington and my grandparents, the Rev. and Mrs. Charles Carus-Wilson'. Letters Three and Four: Two TLsS from Pamela Slade, dated from Plymouth, 5 and 20 June 1984. Five pages in total. Providing information regarding Fry's father's family, taking as starting point her connection with Fry's 'ancestor James Harris of Salcombe', who 'married a Sally Browse there' (Browse being her mother's maiden name and the lady in question being Sally Browse Crispin). Letter Five: Two-page ALS from Arthur H. Frost, Colchester, 4 February 1987, providing information 'about Percy Hammond b. 1860, who was a pupil at Kelvedon School'. Also inserted in the volume are: Two black and white photographs, captioned on reverse: 'Helen S. Staveley | age 71' and 'Helen S. Hammond at age 18', the latter with '”Lil”' added by Fry. Also, cut down photograph of illustration of landscape, captioned by Fry on reverse: 'Watercolour of Robin Hood's Bay from the Slope Field at Raven Hall, almost certainly done by my great-grandfather W. H. Hammond.' Also a small portrait of a woman, tipped-in at head of p.259, captioned by Fry on reverse: 'Mrs. Mortimer | see p. 259 | Can You Find Me'. Also two photocopied pages from a book, the first page with two autograph notes by Fry, the first identifying the source as 'Elizabeth Ham by Herself, 1783-1820', introduced by Eric Gillett, the second note relating to Samuel Lund Fry, mentioned in the text. Also slip of paper with photocopy of register of a marriage, with manuscript note on reverse.