COUNTRYSIDE

[Frederic Vanson, Essex poet, journalist and lecturer.] 19 letters (12 in autograph and 7 typed), to the playwright Christopher Fry, with draft introduction by Fry to a proposed poetry collection by Vanson, and typescript of three of Vanson's poems.

Author: 
Frederic Vanson (1919-1993), Essex poet, journalist and lecturer, wife of the painter Olive Bentley [Christopher Fry (1907-2005), playwright]
Publication details: 
Between May 1971 and November 1986 (two undated). All from 24 Morley Grove, Harlow, Essex.
£400.00

An interesting and sprightly correspondence, mainly concerned with the practicalities of the vocation of a minor provincial poet. See David Gaskin’s obituary of Vanson, Independent, 27 July 1993, and Fry’s entry in the Oxford DNB. A second slice of Vanson material from the Christopher Fry papers (the other collection is offered separately). The collection consists of twenty-one items: nineteen letters from Vanson to Fry, a one-page typescript of three of Vanson’s poems, and a draft of an introduction by Fry to a proposed collection of poems by Vanson.

[Frederic Vanson, Essex poet and journalist; his wife the painter Olive Bentley.] Eight Autograph Letters Signed and one Typed from Vanson to playwright Christopher Fry, collection of poetry typescripts, and ALS to Fry from Bentley.

Author: 
Frederic Vanson (1919-1993), Essex poet and and journalist; his wife the painter Olive Bentley [Christopher Fry (1907-2005), playwright]
Publication details: 
Correspondence dating from between 29 December 1983 and 12 January 1993. Letters of 1983 and 1984 from 24 Morley Grove, Harlow (Essex); the rest from 178 Elm Tree Avenue, Walton on the Naze (Essex).
£400.00

See David Gaskin’s obituary of Vanson, Independent, 27 July 1993, and Fry’s entry in the Oxford DNB. The material is in good condition, lightly aged, with one leaf of poetry typescript creased. Vanson’s eight Autograph Letters Signed date from between 29 December 1983 and 12 January 1993. total 11pp, 8vo, and 2pp, 12mo. One of the letters is lacking all but the last (signed) page; the others are complete. Vanson’s Typed Letter Signed is 1p, 8vo. It is undated, but dated by Fry to 14 August (no year, but from the context written in 1992). The nine letters are all signed ‘Frederic’.

[Gilbert White, naturalist.] Original Manuscript, said to have been dictated by White himself, of 'Gilbert White's statement' on the venomous properties of the toad, with eleven authorial emendations. Together with a series of thermometer readings.

Author: 
Gilbert White (1720-1793), naturalist and ornithologist, author of the celebrated 'Natural History of Selborne' (1789) [Thomas Bell (1792-1880), zoologist]
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£350.00

A very nice artefact of one of the best-loved books in the England language, Gilbert White's 'Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne', which at one point was claimed to be the fourth most-printed book after the Bible, Shakespeare, and Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress'. White's entry in the Oxford DNB concludes by describing the book as 'an expression of universal thanksgiving, treasured by all'.

[John Moore of Tewkesbury, writer, naturalist and conservationist.] Autograph Letter Signed ('John C Moore') to Edward Thomas's friend R. N. Green-Armytage, asking for personal recollections of Thomas, and the loan of letters, for his biography.

Author: 
John Moore [John Cecil Moore] (1907-1967) of Tewkesbury, author and conservationist [Robert North Green-Armytage, friend of Edward Thomas]
Publication details: 
On his letterhead, 11, The Gastons, Gloucester Road, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire. 17 January 1936.
£100.00

2pp., 4to. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased. Addressed to 'Dear Mr Green-Armytage', corrected from 'Armitage'. The letter begins: 'You may have heard that a Committee, of which Walter De la Mare is chairman, is considering the question of putting up some sort of memorial to Edward Thomas. At the same time I am beginning work on a Life and Letters of Edward Thomas, which has Mrs Thomas' approval, and is intended to be something in the nature of a memorial edition.' He will 'shortly be issuing an appeal in the press for the loan of letters etc in the possession of E.

[ Beatrice Magraw, author. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('(Mrs.) Beatrice I. Magraw') to the first British woman cabinet minister Margaret Bondfield, Minister of Labour, putting forward her views on bettering rural housing.

Author: 
Beatrice Irene Magraw (c.1888-1970), author, wife of Charles Magraw (1884-1973), Anglican clergyman [ Margaret Bondfield (1873-1953), Labour politician]
Publication details: 
Slindon Rectory, Arundel, Sussex. 29 March 1930.
£45.00

7pp., 12mo. On two bifoliums. In good condition, lightly aged. She feels she has 'two reasons for approaching' Bondfield, at the time Minister of Labour: 'I believe you are a Somerset woman, & know that you are interested in the question of housing.' She hopes that 'in any plans for bettering housing conditions that this government may make, the state of rural workers' homes may not be overlooked. You are probably as familiar as I am with the horrors of the “Country Slum”.

Five printed items relating to the Co-operative Holidays Association, including the first three issues in a series of 'Co-Operative Holidays Association General Notes'.

Author: 
Co-operative Holidays Association, Manchester [the co-operative movement]
Publication details: 
General Notes': October and December 1918, and February 1919. ['Published at the Offices of The Co-operative Holidays Association, College House, Brusnwick Street, Manchester. Printed by The Edgeley Press Ltd., Stockport.' Other items 1918 and 1920.
£220.00

Items One to Three: three 'Co-operative Holidays Association General Notes' pamphlets, all 4pp, on unbound 8vo bifoliums. Text clear and complete, on aged and worn paper, with a 3 cm closed tear to both leaves of the second number. Each issue ends with a long list of 'Rambling Clubs and Secretaries'. Headings of notes include 'One Shilling Literature Subscription', 'Sir William Mather', 'Canadian Guests', 'Personalia'. Also a report of the annual general meeting.

Small archive of fourteen Typed Letters Signed and six Autograph Letters Signed (all 'Lawrence Chubb'), all addressed to Sir Henry Trueman Wood, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Sir Lawrence Wensley Chubb (1873-1948), pioneer Anglo-Australian environmental campaigner, first Secretary of the National Trust
Publication details: 
Between 4 June 1913 and 19 January 1917; three on letterhead of the Coal Smoke Abatement Society, the others on letterhead of the Commons & Footpaths Preservation Society.
£250.00

The collection is in good condition, on lightly aged and creased paper. The fourteen typed letters are all 4to, 1 p; the autograph letters are all 12mo, three of them of two pages and three of one page. Largely concerned with a lecture given by Chubb to the R.S.A. in 1916 on 'the Preservation of Footpaths & Rights of Way', for which Chubb requests '1,000 or 1,250 cards of admission'. The subject, Chubb comments (21 July 1915), 'seems in itself sufficiently important and interesting to warrant special treatment, and in lecturing I mostly keep footpaths & commons quite separate.

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