CALDER

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 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. See ‘Death of a Bookman’ by the novelist Sally Emerson (editor of ‘Books and Bookmen’ at the time of Dosse’s suicide), in Standpoint magazine, October 2018. The typed letter is in fair condition, aged and worn; the three cards are in very good condition. The signature on the four items is little more than a squiggle. Of the three cards, only Item Four below is addressed.

1p., 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. The main topic of the letter is Marshall's work preparing his book 'Prepare to shed them now. The Ballads of George R. Sims' (London: Hutchinson, 1968). A long and characteristic letter. After references to their meeting at the British Museum and to 'that excellent bookseller, Mr Wallace of The Guild Hall Bookshop' ('he showed me a selection of the Dagonet Ballads – nothing like as good as the copy you saw'), he turns to a 'Sims letter' which Spilstead sent him: 'I cant at the moment date it.

Watson's translation of 'La Cantatrice Chauve' (1950) was first published in London by Calder in 1958, and his version of 'Le Salon de l'Automobile' (1951) by the same publisher in the fifth volume of Ionesco's plays in 1963. The two scripts typed in uniform style, on rectos of leaves, and stapled together. ONE: 'The Bald Prima Donna'. 19pp., 8vo. In good condition, on aged paper, with somewhat-appropriate child's markings in black ink on blank parts of first page.

For more information relating to this influential series of concerts, see 'Pursuit: The Uncensored Memoirs of John Calder' (2001). Seven items, including two duplicates. Text of all items clear and complete. In fair condition, but with one side of a duplicate advertisement heavily sunned (see below). ONE: Typed Letter Signed ('Ian Hamilton') from Hamilton to Conn (husband of the poet Jeanne Conn), 12 February 1960. 4to, 1 p. Eighteen lines. Responding to Conn's criticisms, explaining reasons for cutting short discussion and cancelling part of the programme, and giving future plans.