Three typed letters signed, with manuscript additions and corrections, to Mrs [Lucy] Clifford, novelist and dramatist, who also adds comments in the last letter.

Northern Irish Author and drama critic, see DNB. Three substantial and characteristic letters, total 8pp., 4to. She has submitted some of her plays for his critical appraisal and he has been plain-spoken. In the first letter, he comments on "The Long Duel" that he appreciates its literary rather than its dramatic qualities, but likes it. He finds two "grave faults" "one of which is common to dramatists who are primarily novelists. You spend too much time in explanation of the past and you do it in a novvelistic rather than a dramatic manner." The second fault was that her principal characters are not obviously so, a point he exemplifies, condcluding with her "spoofing" her audience over one character. Production is prevented by the faults not readabi9lity. His final word is that in drama "dominant figures must dominate. Hence the 'star' system which, though it had vices, was not entirely vicious." In the second letter, he says he was ill when he received the other plays which he compares unfavorably with "The Long Duel" ("greater sens of the theatre"). They have the same faults however (too much explanation, etc. - "explanation must arise out of the action"). He contrasts the needs of a novelist with those of a dramatist. He gives examples. Thhe chief problem he has with "A Woman Alone" is that he can't bel;ieve in the husband. He explains. With "The Likeness of the Night" the interest lapses after the second act - he expands on this. Other criticisms expounded and his rationale in his criticism - trying to explain why the plays don't occupy a place on the stage, not comenting on the literary qualities. He writes of the expense of one to stage (too many characters, etc.). In the final letter, he has read a revised act. "It is better than the end in the printed volume but I cannot away with your Mary . . ." Other faults in the plot (". . . And life isn't like that!"). "It is a mistake I think to tinker with plays. Much better write a new one and let the dead past bury its dead." Redundant characters are not only expensive but clutter. He gives the example of a cheap production of "Abraham Lincoln" (Lucy Clifford adds comments in pencil at this point, both agreeing and disagreeing). He concludes by explaining why he and his wife can't accept an invitation to Christmas lunch (and she adds in pencil "So glad they can't"). Important and illuminating letters giving an eminent critics opinion of drama vs the novel, and as a by-product his ideal of drama. His correspondent has the significance also of being at the centre of an important literary coterie which included George Eliot and Henry James.