[‘Philippe Jullian’ [Philippe Simounet], French illustrator, author and aesthete.] Three Autograph Letters Signed and Autograph Card Signed to Philip Dosse, on reviews for ‘Books and Bookmen’, mostly concerning Violet Trefusis and Vita Sackville West

The recipient Philip Dosse was proprietor of Hansom Books, publisher of a stable of seven arts magazines including ‘Books and Bookmen’ and ‘Plays and Players’. Like Jullian, he would commit suicide. See ‘Death of a Bookman’ by Sally Emerson, Standpoint magazine, October 2018. The card is in good condition, lightly aged, while the four letters are in fair condition, with wear and creasing, one (Item Four) with a few small holes to the leaf caused by a paper clip. None of the items is dated. ONE: ACS. On both sides of a plain card with printed letterhead and no illustration. Signed ‘Philippe’ and addressed to ‘My dear Philip’. ‘I would like very much to review Nigel Nicolson book about his mother V. Sackville west [‘Portrait of a Marriage’, 1973] – as I knew very well Violet Trefusis whose love story is the subject of the book’. He asks for ‘a fairly long space there is a lot to say some of it very odd and funny’. TWO: ALS. 1p, 12mo. Signed ‘Philippe’. ‘Yes I would like to write a piece about Violet Trefusis in the same number there will be a review of the Nicolson book – I [dout?] Nigel Nicolson will send me the book.’ He asks Dosse to ‘reproduce the portrait of V. T. par Blanche that is in the book and which I owne [sic]’. Ends: ‘When do you want it? / What length?’ THREE: ALS. 1p, 12mo. Signed ‘Ph. Jullian’. He is enclosing the article on Trefusis, and repeats that it should be ‘illustrated by her portrait by J. E. Blanche she gave me and reproduced in the Nicolson book.’ Comments: ‘Do you know there were many mistakes in the article on Mary of Roumania’. FOUR: ALS. 1p, 12mo. Signed ‘Philippe’. He thanks him for advertising his ‘Art Nouveau Book’ (published in 1974), adding: ‘If Bevis Hillier cant review it I suggest you send it to a very intelligent young man just out of Oxford Philip Mansel’ (with address). Ends: ‘Please send me some amusing book to review – or some splendid one for my library’. FIVE: ALS. 1p, 12mo. Signed ‘Philippe Jullian’. He is sorry that ‘the strike prevented me to send the article on the limericks sooner [presumably Gershon Legman’s ‘The Limerick’] I hope it is not too late as it is a charming book’.