CLAREMONT

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient is presumably the lyricist Peter Claremont Parsons. Plain postcard, apart from letterhead. In good condition, lightly aged. Image on request.Postmarked (from Paddington), stamped and addressed to ‘Geoffrey Parsons esq. / 22 Westbourne Park Road / W.2’. Small signature: ‘C. D. L.’ Reads: ‘Many thanks for Peter’s Progress. [Parson’s poetry book, published that year by Hand & Flower] I’ve read it with great pleasure & amusement, & fallen foul of little except ‘legacies’ rhyming with exegesis. My memory of those H. & S.

1p., 8vo. Air mail letter addressed to Fletcher at 22 Buckingham Gate, London SW1. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. He thanks him for his letter 'regarding autographed [sic] letters', explaining that 'we have gone in very little for letters and manuscripts, although we have made a few exceptions where they were in bound volumes or had some very important Oxford interest'. (Clary's Oxford collection is now at the Claremont Colleges Library. Williams's letters do not 'quite fit our program' (the plural presumably referring to Claremont).

The two volumes contain transcriptions of a total of 65 original autograph poems, most of them unpublished, with extensive explanatory and biographical notes (sometimes running to several pages) composed especially for the recipient of the volumes, Mrs Ball of the City Hotel, Truro. In two uniform 4to notebooks with waxed black cloth bindings. The first volume is in fair condition, on aged and worn paper, in worn binding with loss of spine. The second volume has damp affecting the first 60pp., causing slight loss to text, and damage to the binding. ONE: On front free endpaper: 'Vol I.