GITTINGS

[Wilfred Owen, war poet.] Printed ‘Order of Service for the dedication of a memorial to Wilfred Owen 1893-1918’. [with readers including Ted Hughes, Geoffrey Hill, D. J. Enright, Jon Stallworthy, Jill Balcon]

Author: 
[Wilfred Owen (1893-1918), war poet; Rev. Norman Print, Vicar of Dunsden; Catherine Winkworth; John Stallworthy; D. J. Enright; Robert Gittings; Geoffrey Hill; Ted Hughes; Reynolds Stone; Jill Balcon]
Publication details: 
‘All Saints Church Dunsden at 2.30 p.m. on 12 November 1978 Remembrance Sunday’.
£220.00

A nice association with a man widely regarded as the greatest English poet of the First World War, and a scarce item of which not many copies can have been printed, and no other copy has been traced. 4pp, 8vo. Bifolium on laid paper. In fair condition, lightly aged, with slight creasing at head. Explanatory note on final page begins: ‘The memorial to Wilfred Owen is cut on Portland stone by Michael Harvey from lettering drawn by Reynolds Stone, CBE, RDI. / The graves of Tom and Susan Owen, the poet’s father and mother, and of his sister Mary are in the south-east corner of the churchyard.

[T.S.Eliot; Friends Canterbury Cathedral, publication arranged by Rev. H.R. Williamson.] Friends' Festival Day | Sat., 12th July, 1952. [Programme and 'The Drama of our Festival Years', with work by T. S. Eliot, Poet Laureate John Masefield et al.]

Author: 
Rev. Hugh Ross Williamson; Robert Gittings; Friends of Canterbury Cathedral [John Masefield, Poet Laureate; Laurence Binyon; T. S. Eliot; Christopher Fry; Christopher Hassall; Dorothy L. Sayers]
Publication details: 
[Event for the Friends of Canterbury Cathedral, held on 12 July 1952.] Printed by J. A. Jennings Ltd., Canterbury.
£180.00

Unpaginated stapled pamphlet of 24pp, small 4to. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with slight damage at head of spine. On the second page: 'The arrangement of this Programme has been the work of the Rev. Hugh Ross Williamson.' Programme for the day on front cover, including a talk by 'Mr Robert Speight: “Touring in Canada with Murder in the Cathedral”'. The final event, at 7pm in the Chapter House, is a performance entitled 'The Drama of our Festival years', and the text of this piece makes up 21pp of the pamphlet.

[Robert Gittings, poet and literary biographer, to close friend playwright Christopher Fry.] Autograph Letter Sgined ('Robert'), largely concerning the writing of their plays 'Masters of Violence' (Gittings) and 'The Dark is Light Enough' (Fry).

Author: 
Robert Gittings [Robert William Victor Gittings] (1911-1992), poet and literary biographer [Christopher Fry (1907-2005), playwright]
Publication details: 
West Broyle House, Chichester. 8 June 1952.
£56.00

For the context of the letter see Pamela M. King's 2007 paper 'Twentieth-Century Medieval-Drama Revivals and the Universities', which states that at the time of the writing, there was in Canterbury 'to be a new play by Robert Gittings about St Alphege and the Danish invasion entitled Makers of Violence', and that at the Pilgrim Players in Norwich planned to put on, at the church of St Peter Mancroft, a production of Fry's 'Sleep of Prisoners'. 2pp, 8vo. In fair condition, lightly aged, with a little light damp spotting. Folded once.

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