HAMMOND

[Harkness Fellowships.] Five Typed Letters Signed and one Autograph Letter Signed from Lansing V. Hammond of the Commonwealth Fund to Mark Bonham Carter, discussing the organization, cultural matters and death of his father William Churchill Hammond.

Author: 
[Harkness Fellowships] Lansing V. Hammond of the Commonwealth Fund of New York City [his father William Churchill Hammond (1860-1949), organist and choir master; Mark Bonham Carter (1922-1994)]
Publication details: 
ONE (ALS): 10 January 1948; on letterhead of the Hotel Durant, Berkeley. TWO to SIX (TLsS): 29 December 1948; 18 February, 9 June and 8 July 1949; 3 May 1950; all on letterhead of The Commonwealth Fund, 41 East Fifty-seventh Street, New York 22, N.Y.
£280.00

Lansing Van der Heyden Hammond (b.1906), son of the distinguished organist and choirmaster of Mount Holyoake College William Churchill Hammond, was for many years Director of the Commonwealth Fund Division of International Fellowships. For Bonham Carter, see his entry in the Oxford DNB. The present group of six items shed light on the 1940s administration of the Commonwealth Fund. They are in good condition, lightly aged and creased. The autograph letter is 1p, 12mo; the five single-spaced typed letters total 6pp, 4to. All six are signed ‘Lance’. ONE: ALS, 10 January 1948. 1p, 12mo.

[Christopher Fry: the schoolboy diaries of his elder brother Charles Leslie Harris.] Four years of diaries, 1916-1919, covering his time at Bedford School.

Author: 
[Christopher Fry [born Arthur Hammond Harris] (1907-2005), playwright] his brother Charles Leslie Harris (b.1902) [Bedford School]
Publication details: 
1916 to 1919, each a ‘Charles Letts School-Boy’s Diary’. At front of diaries for 1916 and 1917 he writes: ‘C L. Harris / 120 Gladstone St / Bedford’.
£450.00

See Fry’s entry by Michael Billington in the Dictonary of National Biography. His brother survives as a rather shadowy figure: he was certainly alive in 1978, when Fry referred to him in the account of his family background ‘Can You Find Me / A Family History’ (OUP). In that volume Fry describes his ‘brother Leslie’ as a baby ‘growing sturdily’, noting that ‘though he was later called by his first name Charles, he was Leslie for many years to come’.

[Christopher Fry, 1930s pantomime (author's first book?) by the writer of 'The Lady's Not for Burning'.] Printed play text: 'The Sleeping Beauty | A Pantomime | by | Christopher Fry.'

Author: 
Christopher Fry (1907-2005), playwright and poet, noted for his verse dramas, author of 'The Lady's Not for Burning'
Publication details: 
Printers' slug on title-page: 'Courier Co., Ltd., Tun. Wells.' [Tunbridge Wells, 1934.]
£250.00

Possibly the author's first book (see below), from the Christopher Fry papers (despite the ownership inscription). 54pp, 12mo. Stapled into green printed wraps (title and words '(ALL RIGHTS RESERVED)'). Tiny ownership signature in initials ('R. G.') in top right-hand corner of title-page. No details of publication or date, other than the printers' slug at bottom left of title-page.

[Christopher Fry, dramatist and poet.] "Thor with Angels" Copy of the 'Acting Edition for the Festival of the Friends of Canterbury Cathedral 1948', with anonymous manuscript copy letter, in two hands, of a rebuttal of a critical review in The Times.

Author: 
Christopher Fry (1907-2005), playwright and poet, noted for his verse dramas, author of 'The Lady's Not for Burning'
Publication details: 
Copy Letter dated 21 June 1948; no place. Play: [Friends of Canterbury Cathedral.] Canterbury: H. J. Goulden, Ltd. [1948.]
£180.00

From the Christopher Fry papers. PLAY: [1] + 47pp, 12mo. Stapled into buff wraps printed in red, including the statement that it is the 'Friends of Canterbury Cathedral Edition'. In fair condition, lightly aged, in worn wraps, with a trace of rust to staples. This edition of the play (the first?) is uncommon: the only copies on OCLC WorldCat at the British Library and University of British Columbia. COPY LETTER: 4pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Written out in two hands, Recipient not named. With salutation 'Dear Sir,' and valediction 'I am | Yrs truly,'.

[Christopher Fry edits, as 'A. H. Harris': the Birth of a Literary Career] Thirteen numbers (1-11, 16, 17) of the 'Bedford Modern School Gazette', with 'B.M.S. Gazette Supplement'.

Author: 
Christopher Fry (1907-2005), playwright, [born Arthur Hammond Harris]; Bedford Modern School
Publication details: 
[Bedford Modern School.] Nos 1-11 (Feb. 1925 to July 1927): Printed by the "Bedfordshire Standard" Newspaper Co. (1913), Ltd, Bedford. Nos 16 (Oct. 1928) and 17 (Dec. 1928): Printed by the County Press (Bedford) Limited. Supplement: 30 March 1926.
£750.00

Fourteen items, all 8vo. Seven numbers (4-9 and 16) are 16pp; number 17 is 26pp; other numbers range from 8 to 12pp, except for the 'B.M.S. Gazette Supplement' (30 March 1926) which has 4pp. The first five numbers on cheap newspaper stock; from the sixth number onwards the paper quality improves. Number 17 ('Special Christmas Number') has lost its back cover. The other thirteen numbers are complete. A frail survival, in fair overall condition, on aged and worn paper. Numbers 4-11 with 'Eagle' masthead, otherwise no settled layout.

[Joan Hammond, Australian operatic soprano and champion golfer.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Joan') to 'Derek', regarding her heart attack, recuperation and retirement.

Author: 
Joan Hammond [Dame Joan Hilda Hood Hammond] (1912-1996), Australian operatic soprano and champion golfer
Publication details: 
On letterhead of The Old Cottage, Egypt, Farnham Common, Bucks. 15 October 1965.
£120.00

2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with lightly-rusted indentation from a paperclip. She thanks him for the 'lovely form of intrusion your letter proved to be - as though you could ever intrude!' She wonders whether, if she had been 'a more patient patient' the 'second attack' might not have happened' (a heart attack had forced her to retire from the stage), 'but I was never one for sitting and doing nothing'. She is 'trying very hard now as I have learnt my lesson'. She has 'so many interests that retirement is beginning to become a pleasure, thank heavens'.

[ The Savage Club, London. ] 53 signatures of members, including those of James Agate, C. R. W. Nevinson, Aubrey Hammond, Reginald Arkell and John Ansell, sent to the composer Herman Finck in his final illness. ]

Author: 
[ The Savage Club, London; James Agate; C. R. W. Nevinson; Aubrey Hammond, John Ansell; Reginald Arkell; Herman Finck [ born Hermann Van Der Vinck ] (1872-1939), composer and conductor ]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of The Savage Club, 1 Carlton House Terrace, London, S.W.1. April 1939.
£250.00

4pp., 12mo. On bifolium of grey paper. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. 53 signatures over four pages, written after the following: 'April 1939 | Dear Herman: Keep up your Heart & Get well soon. We need your kingly, cheery presence'. One signatory has written a bar of music, another has drawn a face, another has written after his name 'now then – up beat!' The first signature is that of the Punch cartoonist Bert Thomas (1883-1966), after which he has written '(BLIMEY)'. Among the other signatories are the theatre critic James Agate (1877-1947), the artists C. R. W.

[ Printed item in publisher's cloth. ] Doctor Grattan. A Novel.

Author: 
William A. Hammond, Author of "Lal." [ William Alexander Hammond (1828-1900), Surgeon General of the United States Army during the American Civil War ]
Publication details: 
London: Richard Bentley & Son, New Burlington Street. 1885.
£50.00

417pp., 8vo. A fair copy, on lightly aged paper, a little loose in worn publisher's brown cloth binding, with gilt title on spine and decorative cross on front board, and green patterned endpapers. Blind stamp of the W. H. Smith Library, Strand, to front free endpaper. According to Hammond's biographer Bonnie Ellen Blustein, 'The complex plot of Doctor Grattan revolved around the relation of insanity to neurological impairment, and touched on the subjects of neuralgia, headache, kleptomania, and delusions.' This English edition of Hammond's book is now uncommon.

[The first two issues, in original wraps.] The Cape Illustrated Magazine. [The second volume iIncluding the first printing of 'In a Far-Off World' by 'Miss Olive Schreiner'.

Author: 
Prof. J. Gill, editor; Miss Olive Schreiner; J. D. Ensor; Lennox Riddoch; Ruth Mitchell; W. Hammond Tooke; C. F. Tobias; C. Wilson-Moore; T. E. Fuller; Grant Allen; Paul Tennant; Dennis Edwards
Publication details: 
Printed and published by Dennis Edwards & Co., 19, Long-street, Cape Town [South Africa]. September 1890 (vol.1, no.1) and October 1890 (vol.1, no.2).
£350.00

Both 4to, in identical green printed wraps. Both issues in good condition, on lightly-aged paper, with slight chipping and wear to wraps. Same illustration of two women looking out from the deck of a ship on front wrap of both issues, and same advertisements on inside covers and back. The first issue has 'SPECIMEN.' stamped in red on the front. First issue: frontispiece and 50pp., preceded by four pages of advertisements and leaf carrying an address to the public from the publishers, and succeeded by leaf whose recto is headed 'Gardening for September' and whose verso is headed 'New Books.

Six Autograph Letters Signed and one Autograph Note Signed (all 'J. H. Trumbull') from the philologist James Hammond Trumbull to Thomas Raynesford Lounsbury, mainly on a paper by the latter in the Transactions of the American Philological Association

Author: 
James Hammond Trumbull (1821-1897), Yale-educated American philologist and Republican Secretary of the State of Connecticut, 1861-1866 [Thomas Raynesford Lounsbury (1838-1915), literary critic]
Publication details: 
All eight items from Hartford, Connecticut (one on letterhead of the Watkinson Library and two on letterheads of the American Philological Association). All from 1871.
£200.00

The seven items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Totalling 10pp, 12mo. A correspondence between two Yale men. The first six items (between 11 April and 29 June 1871) relate to Lounsbury's 'paper on old English verb forms, for publication in the Transactions [of the Amerian Philological Association]'. A letter of 8 May 1871 is revealing of the difficulties encountered by Trumbull in editing the journal: 'Your paper is safe in hand, and I do not apprehend any trouble with it, typographical or other.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J. H. Trumbull') from the philologist and Republican politician James Hammond Trumbull to A. S. Train, complaining of the dificulty of dealing with his query at 'moderate length'.

Author: 
James Hammond Trumbull (1821-1897), Yale-educated American philologist and Republican Secretary of the State of Connecticut, 1861-1866
Publication details: 
Hartford; 24 April 1876.
£90.00

1p., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper. He begins: 'It would be tolerably easy to write a duodecimo of a couple of hundred pages by way of answer to yours of the 22d, but really I do not know how to talk about it in a letter of modest length.' He refers him to 'newspapers, magazines, special biographies, encyclopaedias, histories of the several colonies, and of the Revolution, - passim'. He concludes: 'Such a subject must be worked up like a patchwork quilt. There is no one book better than another, in which to look for facts and authorities.'

Autograph Letter Signed to Richard Byham, Secretary to the Board of Ordnance, Pall Mall.

Author: 
James Hammond of the Ordnance Office, Jersey [Revolutions of 1848; French Royal Family; Louis XVIII; Board of Ordnance; Ordnance Office, Pall Mall]
Publication details: 
2 March 1848; Jersey.
£150.00

12mo, 3 pp. Ruckled and stained, with the verso of the second leaf of the bifolium (carrying the address) laid down on a leaf detached from an autograph album. The 'Royal Family of France' are causing 'a very deep interest' and 'a portion of them have found their way to this Island'. He reports that the 'Duchesse d'Orleans and her two Sons, and the Duc de Montpensier have arrived here from Granville - they were brought over by a Jersey Boat the Master of which has been most liberally rewarded'.

Autograph Letter to George Hammond of Spring Gardens.

Author: 
Robert Plumer Ward
Publication details: 
Abingdon St. Monday.' [no date, but before 1827].
£56.00

English novelist and politician (1765-1846). The recipient (1763-1853) was a diplomat, and joint-editor of the 'Anti-Jacobin'. Three pages, 12mo. On discoloured, lightly-stained paper, with one corner of second leaf of bifoliate (with two words of text) broken off in breaking open letter, and still adhering to wafer. Had Hammond given 'a days notice' of his 'intention to come up', he might have been spared 'some hours of unnecessary Solitude'.

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