[Joseph Peter Thorp, journalist and typographer.] Two Autograph Letters Signed: one with personal news to Sir Evelyn Wrench (and with note by Wrench), the other to ‘Miss Wrench’, filled with information about printing.

Two good substantial letters, filled with personal and professional content. See the entries for Thorp and Wrench in the Oxford DNB. Both letters in brown ink in Thorps calligraphic hand. ONE (to Sir Evelyn Wrench): 2pp, 8vo. On cream paper with brown italic letterhead. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded twice. Signed ‘Peter’. Begins: ‘My dear Evelyn / We are going to make a great change in our way of life. For a long time I have felt that both physically & financially this house is beyond our strength. By the greatest good fortune (or something much better) we have, by special arrangement, been accepted as P. Gs for life by a Convent of the Poor Sisters of Nazareth, which has lately come here. Of course Nell [his wife the artist Ellen Syrett (1874-1970)] was distressed at this decision but is now reconciled and realises that there is no better solution, indeed no other.’ In the second half of the letter he describes the arrangements, noting that his wife ‘has already formed an affectionate tie with the Revd Mother - to whom I - incidentally - have completely lost my heart’. He ends in the hope that Wrench’s book (on Geoffrey Dawson) ‘is shaping well and nearing its end’. Annotated in red ink by Wrench to the recipient of the next letter: ‘WW This may interest you. Don’t bother to return. It shews where the Thorps are going to spend the last years of their life’. TWO (to ‘Miss Wrench’): 4pp, 32mo. Sixty-four lines of text. On two leaves of grey paper, each with a red ruled border at the head. In good condition, lightly aged. Begins: ‘Dear Miss Wrench / It is true that I once knew something about printing (if not quite so much as Evelyn suggests!) but it was about the designing side only. I knew enough of course of the practical side to be able to design intelligently but never did any actual work on the press. “Architects” we said “didn’t need actually to lay the bricks!” But it is no bad thing when they actually do so.’ After commenting on the changes over the past twenty years to the ‘conditions of the printing trade’ he states: ‘If you are approaching printing as a hobby then I know of no better machine than Adana. But if you are thinking of actual printing as an income maker then I certainly repeat the advice of Punch to those about to marry “Dont!”’ He explains why he is less critical regarding ‘Acting as agent or representative for a printing house’. A friend with an Adana ‘finds the returns quite inadequate to the expenditure & the labour’. ‘If Edinboro has no good printers it must have sadly changed. It was (and so far as my knowledge goes still is) one of the best - if not actually the best district for fine printing.’ After declining to give ‘misleading’ advice, ‘except in the very discouraging negative form above indicated’, he turns to Wrench: ‘I hear from Evelyn occasionally. It is wonderful the way he carries on his work and the fine patience with which he bears his very heavy trial. / He tells me has [sic] written 300,000 words on Dawson and is now engaged in cutting a 100,000. A formidable task.’ (Wrench’s book on Sir Geoffrey Dawson was published in 1955.) He ends by repeating his disinclination to ‘give advice out of ignorance’: ‘My memories of Edinbro are of one of the most beautiful cities (with Bath & Oxford as rivals. But oh! so cold & windswept.’