J.M.

The note was written in a momentous month for Wainwright. On 5 September 1945, on his release after three years in captivity following his surrender at Corregidor, Wainwright was promoted to four-star General. On 10 September he was presented with the Medal of Honor by President Truman at the White House. On 13 September a ticker-tape parade in New York City was held in his honor. And on 28 September he was named commander of the Second Service Command and the Eastern Defense Command at Fort Jay, Governors Island, New York.

Three pieces of ephemera from a golden period of English children’s book illustration. All three items printed on shiny paper, and all worn and discoloured. ONE: ‘Hodder & Stoughton’s Christmas List’, with advertisement for Edmund Dulac’s edition of A. T. Quiller-Couch’s ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ on cover. 20pp, folio. With rusting staples. Folded once. Undated, but containing items published in 1910, apart from the cover item, which appears to have been published in 1912.

xiv + [1] + 38pp, 12mo. No.16/500. In blue cloth binding, titled in gilt on cover and spine. No dust wrapper. Printed on thick paper. In good condition, lightly aged. Annotated in pencil throughout, and with a page of annotations at the end. The handwriting is distinctive (and certainly not Block’s), with the capital N in particular. Some of the annotations give dates from the 1970s, but the handwriting is that of someone from an earlier generation. As an example, one of the longer pencil annotations, on p.5, listing an additional item: ‘Caught Napping. / c. 1883.

Henley?s poem ?Invictus?, with its conclusion ?I am the master of my fate, / I am the captain of my soul?, is one of the most popular in the English language, and has inspired individuals as diverse as Nelson Mandela and Ron Kray. See Henley?s entry in the Oxford DNB. He was a friend of both Sylvia Llewelyn Davies and J. M. Barrie, and his daughter Margaret inspired the ?Peter Pan? character ?Wendy?. 1p, 8vo. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded three times for postage. The letterhead has a thin black mourning border. Henley?s poem featured as the ?Envoy?

An interesting letter, indicating the networks of sympathisers who assisted those fleeing to England in the years following the revolutions of 1848. In the July 1895 edition of the Atlantic, the subject of this letter, the Christian Socialist J. M. Ludlow, in reviewing Nadaud’s memoirs, described him as ‘a friend of my own, of many years’ standing’. The present item was written in the seventh of the eighteen years of Nadaud’s English exile, part of which was spent as a teacher in Wimbledon under the name ‘Henri Geo. Nadaud’. The identity of the recipient is not known. 4pp, 16mo.

Lady Cynthia Asquith was Barrie's personal secretary in his later years, and inherited the bulk of his estate, but not the rights to 'Peter Pan'. The letter is 2pp, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged, with small holes to one corner from staple. With red date stamp marking receipt. Begins: 'Dear Sir | Sir James Barrie directs me to express his regret at your letter having remained unanswered for so long – but he has been absent from London, and unable to attend to his correspondence.

Title-page headed: 'Victoria University, University College of Liverpool, Faculty of Arts.' 58pp., 12mo. In grey printed wraps. In fair condition, on lightly aged and worn paper, with central vertical crease, and with shelf-marks and red label of the Board of Education Reference Library, and the printing of Mackay's name on the front cover touched up in manuscript.

One page. On piece of paper roughly seven inches by three and a half wide. Bottom part of letter cut away. Reads 'Dr Sir | In compiance with your wish | I subscribe myself | truly yours | [signed] J. M. Weston | To/ | Jas. Reese Esq'. Docketed by Rees 'The above autograph is that of my friend J M Weston, Stage Manager of the St Charles Theatre - he is the Author of Several popular pieces, among which is the beautiful drama of Lucretia Borgia'. Dated in another hand on reverse. Not much appears to be known about Weston, whose translation of Victor Hugo's play was first published in 1850.