LITERARY

An interesting item, linking the editors of two prominent literary magazines. See his entry in the Oxford DNB, which states, without giving a date, that ‘Chaotic working conditions led to desperation: Grindea sold the title to Frank Cass and retreated to Hove hoping to write his memoirs, but quickly decided he didn't want to and “in agonies of self-flagellation begged Cass to sell back the magazine”’. The recipient Philip Dosse was proprietor of Hansom Books, publisher of a stable of seven arts magazines including Books and Bookmen and Plays and Players.

See his entry in Encyclopaedia Britannica. Elegant signature, with final flourish curving backwards above the signature. Clearly in response to a request for an autograph, on 14 x 10 cm piece of cream paper. In good condition, lightly aged.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. On 6 x 3.5 cm slip of paper, cut from letter. Reads ‘Yours very truly, / David Masson.’ Laid down on piece of 16mo paper, beneath oval photographic portrait of Masson cut from magazine. Biographical details typed at head of page. In good condition, lightly aged. Seee Image

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, with slight wear at top left-hand corner of second leaf (not affecting text). Biographical details added in small type at head of first page. Addressed to ‘The Honbl Spencer Ponsonby’ and signed ‘Alaric A. Watts.’ Begins: ‘Dear Sir / May I trespass so far upon your kindness as to ask you to place the enclosed letter [not present] to Lord Clarendon. It is on the subject of the London Library of which his Lordship is the President’.

For information regarding Sir Leslie Stephen, consult Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, though somewhat aged and worn, with strip of brown paper stub adhering to one edge. Folded for postage. Reads: ?Madam, / I am obliged by your offer of an article, but, though I agree with you that it has some merit, I regret that my engagements make it quite impossible for me to accept it. / Your truly / The Editor of the Cornhill? (?Cornhill? little more than a series of scratches). See Image.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. The recipient (‘Dear Sir’) is not named, but is presumably Alexander Macmillan (see Oxford DNB), the publisher of the two books referred to in the letter, which he seems to have sent for review. The letter is signed ‘H Reeve’. Folded for postage. He begins by thanking him for sending copies of ‘Lady Duff Gordon’s Letters [from Egypt]’ and ‘Ecce Homo’ [‘a survey of the life and work of Jesus Christ’ by J. R. Seeley], which he has ‘already read with great interest’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. (BBTI has John Andrews with bookshop and circulating library at 167 New Bond Street from before 1831 to 1857.) 1p, 12mo. Addressed on reverse of second leaf for delivery by hand ('wait') to 'Mr Wauchope / at Mr Andrews' / 167. New Bond St.'. In good condition, lightly aged, with unobtrusive central spike hole (for business correspondence) through both leaves. Reads: 'Dear Sir / Be so good as send me the vouchers of the Scrivener for 1827 agreeably with your promise, is there particular occasion for them today'.

See the two men's entries in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged. Folded for postage. Reads: ‘Jany 30. / My Dear old Boy / Ill come on Thursday with great pleasure to the free masons / Yrs faithfully / Robt Liston / W. Jerdan Esq’.

She is noticed in her the entry for her father Derwent Coleridge in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On first leaf of bifolium of grey paper. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage. Addressed to ‘My dear Mr. Pearson’ and signed ‘Christabel R. Coleridge’. Her journey was comfortable and she found ‘all well’ on her return. She does not believe her cold ‘will be of any consequence and the weather is quite fine’. Her ‘two head lady school teachers are laid up with colds’. She ends: ‘I think more things are alive in the garden than I expected to see’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. On the front cover of a 12 x 7 cm envelope, from which the seal has been torn away on the reverse. Otherwise in very good condition. A pleasing piece of calligraphy, with the word ‘Private’ centred and underlined at the head, and the address to ‘The Honble. Spencer Ponsonby. / Foreign Office’ across the central band, with the signature at bottom left: ‘Alaric Watts.’ See Image.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Written in the year in which Smith made his one return to America after becoming a British citizen in 1913. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. On grey paper. Reads: ‘Mr. L. Pearsall Smith regrets that he will be away from London on July 6th & will not be able to attend the Dinner of the Royal Literary Fund on that date.’

See is noticed in her the entry for her father Derwent Coleridge in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, on grey paper. Folded once. In a vigorous and youthful hand, considering the fact that she would be dead in a few months. Reads: ‘Miss Christabel Coleridge presents her compliments to the Secretary of the Royal Literature [sic] Fund, but is compelled to decline the honor they have done her, as she is unable to travel to London. She will endeavour to send a small subscription later on’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, with that of the recipient Lady [Maria] Theresa Lewis (1803-1865), who lived in Kent House in Knightsbridge with her second husband Sir George Cornewall Lewis, Bart, her first husband having been the novelist Thomas Henry Lister (1800-1842). 32mo, 2pp. On the two sides of a piece of gilt-edged paper. In good condition, folded once for postage. Signed ‘F Jeffrey’. A difficult hand.

An interesting letter, in which Johnson discusses her writing practice. See her entry and that of her husband in the Oxford DNB. The recipient Vere Henry Collins (1872-1966), was an author and grammatical stickler. 2pp, 12mo. 27 lines of text. In good condition, lightly aged, with slight rust spotting from a paperclip. Folded twice for postage. On the topic of ‘Madame de Charlus’, one of the ‘Six Proust Reconstructions’ - plays by Johnson inspired by the work of Marcel Proust - just broadcast on the BBC Third Programme, she thanks him for his ‘most kind & pleasing letter’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged, with a crease, dogeared corner and small nick. Folded once for postage. Signed ‘Michael Sadleir’. He is grateful to Collins ‘for pointing out the careless grammatical mistake of mine in the SUNDAY TIMES review. It is only too easy to slip into a conversational style (for I think that what I meant was perfectly clear) when writing rapid condensations for a newspaper.

An interesting letter, revealing some of Cecil's views on the art of writing. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient Vere Henry Collins (1872-1966), was an author and grammatical stickler, and Cecil has clearly been on the receiving end of a ticking off. 2pp, 4to. On grey paper. In fair condition, lightly aged, with creasing and a short closed cut at the foot. He begins by stating that he found Collins’s letter ‘very interesting’: ‘I take a great interest in the small points of style.’ He agrees with some of Collins’s ‘strictures’, ‘in particular that about the exclamation mark.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. From the archives of Philip Dosse, proprietor of Hansom Books, publisher of the ‘Seven Arts’ group of magazines, including ‘Books and Bookmen’ and ‘Plays and Players’. See ‘Death of a Bookman’ by the novelist Sally Emerson (editor of ‘Books and Bookmen’ at the time of Dosse’s suicide), in Standpoint magazine, October 2018. 2pp, 4to. The letterhead, on both leaves, is topped by a pleasing 10 x 6 cm woodcut of Combe Florey House. The paper is creased, otherwise in good condition, and entirely legible.

See his entry, and Craig’s, in the Oxford DNB. 13 x 9 cm envelope, with seal (no impression of any kind) in red wax over the broken flap. In good condition, lightly aged. On the front of the envelope, in Jeffrey’s hand, ‘To / James Gibson Craig Esqre / 7. North St Andrew Street’. Beneath this, at bottom left and between the customary lines is the signature ‘F. Jeffrey’.

An excellent letter, linking leading nineteenth-century writers of the French and English nations. See Daudet's entry in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and Meredith’s in the Oxford DNB. Daudet’s association with Meredith during his ‘first and only visit to England’ is described on pp.122-124 of the 1911 edition of J. A. Hammerton’s ‘George Meredith, his Life and Art’, which also quotes extensively from Madame Daudet’s account of the Englishman, referred to in the letter. 2pp, 16mo. Twenty-one lines of closely- and neatly-written text. On the rectos of the leaves of a bifolium.

A nice item linking one of late Victorian England’s most popular novelists with its most critically admired. See the entries for Caine and Meredith in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Laid down on part of a leaf from the autograph album of Meredith’s daughter Marie Eveleen (Mariette; 1871-1933), wife of Henry Parkman Sturgis (1847-1929), American-born banker and Liberal politician. Reads: ‘To / George Meredith / With much admiration / Hall Caine / 23/Sept/91.’ See image.

See Hutton's entry in the Oxford DNB, together with that of the recipient Sir Lovelace Tomlinson Stamer (1829-1908), Anglican Bishop of Shrewsbury. 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, on lightly aged paper, with slight smudging on the first page. With two folds for postage. Addressed to ‘The Revd Sir Lovelace T Stamer Bart’ and signed ‘R H Hutton’. Twenty-five lines of text in a hand that must surely have proved as much of a challenge to Hutton’s compositors as to present-day readers.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. On recto of first leaf of bifolium. Addressed on reverse of second leaf: ‘123456 / [T. W. Naellz?] Esqr / Ambleside’. Aged and worn, with closed tears along folds, and damage to second leaf from breaking of seal. Reads: ‘Dear Sir / If you can send me Madame Cottin’s romance about Saladin you will much oblige me. / Yours truly / John Wilson’. Good large signature. The first edition of ‘The Saracen; Or, Matilda and Melek Adhel: A Crusade Romance, From the French of Madame Cottin, with an Historical Introduction, by J.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient is not named, but the item is from the papers of Eileen Cond, an enthusiastic collector of autographs. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded for postage. In Blunden’s stylish hand the note simply reads: ‘[9 Woodstock Close / Oxford] / 1 April 1936 / Dear Madam / I append the autograph which you requested. / yours faithfully / Edmund Blunden.’

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient Philip Dosse was proprietor of Hansom Books, publisher of a stable of seven arts magazines including Books and Bookmen and Plays and Players. See ‘Death of a Bookman’ by the novelist Sally Emerson (editor of ‘Books and Bookmen’ at the time of Dosse’s suicide), in Standpoint magazine, October 2018. The present item is 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and creased. Folded once for postage. Signed ‘Peter Quennell’. He ‘can’t co-operate’ with the questionnaire that Dosse has sent him.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient Philip Dosse was proprietor of Hansom Books, publisher of a stable of seven arts magazines including Books and Bookmen and Plays and Players. See ‘Death of a Bookman’ by the novelist Sally Emerson (editor of ‘Books and Bookmen’ at the time of Dosse’s suicide), in Standpoint magazine, October 2018. The present item is 1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged and creased. Folded twice for postage. Signed ‘Miron Grindea’.

See the entries for Angus Wilson and Christina Foyle in the Oxford DNB. ‘Dolly’ is clearly the ‘Mrs. A. G. Dowdeswell’ who was secretary of the Johnson Society of London in the 70s and 80s (arranging luncheons) and named as a member of the Johnson Society at least as late as 1992. The recipient Philip Dosse was proprietor of Hansom Books, publisher of a stable of seven arts magazines including Books and Bookmen and Plays and Players. See ‘Death of a Bookman’ by the novelist Sally Emerson (editor of ‘Books and Bookmen’ at the time of Dosse’s suicide), in Standpoint magazine, October 2018.

See his long and appreciative entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. Worn and aged, with part of paper mount adhering over half of the reverse. Written in a tight close hand. Begins: ‘My dear Jerdan / The inclosed is for you to do what you like with. / I am off to Lord Albert’s tomorrow morning - the weather is improving.’ He suggests that ‘Smith [i.e.

See the two men's entries in the Oxford DNB. Russell's papers are in the Harry Ransom Center at Texas. 1p, 4to. Aged and worn, with creasing and closed tear along left edge. Folded one. Carrying a neat and controlled signature, ‘Leonard Russell.’ He has ‘just come across’ the books Wilson lent him, ‘buried under a mass of books and papers’, and apologises. He ends by asking how Wilson’s ‘Notes from a Bookshop’ are going. ‘Copy as soon as you like.’ Wilson has ticked across the two paragraphs to signify action taken.

Three scarce items, with no other copies traced. All three carry the Club’s badge. The 1929 menu is in good condition; the other two items are in fair condition, lightly aged and worn. The two ‘Christmas Supper’ menus are uniform in layout. Each is printed on an 8vo piece of white card, with the same photograph of ‘J. Windsor Burgess as Father Christmas’ on one side and the menu on the other. (The menus differ and are dated.) Each menu is wrapped in a grey-paper 8vo bifolium, printed on all four sides. The Menu for 19 December 1927 states on the cover: ‘J. H. Brocklehurst, Esq.

1p, 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged. Removed from an album, and with stub still adhering to inner edge. Folded twice. He asks to be accorded ‘un quart d’heure d’audiénce’, as he is leaving on a journey and needs a passport and letters of recommendation. The recipient is not named, but he has written ‘Samedi à midi’ at top left.