MONOLOGUE

[Ruth Draper, American actress and dramatist, whose monologues influence Joyce Grenfell and others.] Autograph Letter Signed to ?Sir David [Ross]?, going into great detail about her eating arrangements while performing at Oxford.

Author: 
Ruth Draper (1884-1956), American actress and dramatist, whose monologues influenced many including Joyce Grenfell [Sir David Ross [W. D. Ross], Provost of Oriel, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University]
Publication details: 
5 April [no year but presumably between 1941 and 1944]. Cambridge.
£56.00

Draper inspired characters in two of Agatha Christie?s books. Among others impressed by her work were Bernard Shaw, Thornton Wilder, John Gielgud, Katharine Hepburn, Maurice Chevalier, Laurence Olivier, Henry James, Henry Adams, Edith Wharton, Joyce Grenfell, Emma Thompson, David Mamet and Maureen Lipman. See Ross?s entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo, on bifolium of light-grey paper. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage. Addressed to ?Dear Sir David? and signed ?Ruth Draper.? Presumably written during Ross?s Vice-Chancellorship, 1941-1944.

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[Joyce Grenfell, comedian.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Joyce Grenfell') to 'Mr Chipp', gracefully explaining her reasons for having to refuse for a second time his 'kind invitation'.

Author: 
Joyce Grenfell [Joyce Irene Grenfell, née Phipps] (1910-1979), comedian, monologist, actress and singer
Publication details: 
On letterhead of Flat 8, 34 Elm Park Gardens, Chelsea, SW10 [London]. 27 May 1960.
£30.00

1p, 16mo. In fair condition, folded once, with two punch holes at margin, one affecting a word of text. She states that it is kind of him to ask her again, and she feels 'very churlish in having to say NO a second time', but her 'autumn-winter plans are complicated by a big concert tour & a lot of other [pro]bable dates', so she must reluctantly refuse his invitation.

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[Joyce Grenfell, comedian.] Two Autograph Letters Signed ('Joyce Grenfell' and 'Joyce') to Sheridan Russell, one regarding the Bermondsey 'settlement' Time and Talent, the other from New York, on the city, her audiences and the reception of her show.

Author: 
Joyce Grenfell [Joyce Irene Grenfell, née Phipps] (1910-1979), comedian, monologist, actress and singer [Sheridan Russell (1900-1991), husband of social worker Kit Russell [Kit Stewart] (1909-1998)]
Publication details: 
ONE: 149 King's Road, S.W.3. [London] 9 April 1949. TWO: Laurelton Hotel, West 55th St., New York City. 29 November 1955.
£56.00

For information on Russell see the Oxford DNB entry on his wife from 1957, the social worker Kit Russell [Katherine Frances Russell, née Stewart] (1909-1998). Both letters are in fair condition, lightly aged and creased. ONE: Signed 'Joyce Grenfell'. 2pp, 12mo. She begins the letter with a question: 'Dear Sheridan Russell. | What is Time and Talents?

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[ 'Arthur Sketchley' (i.e. George Rose), 'Mrs Brown' and the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly. ] Autograph Note Signed ('A. Sketchley') to 'Jno. Kinloch Esq', requesting 'A Box for this evening'.

Author: 
'Arthur Sketchley', pseudonym of George Rose (1817-1882), dramatist, creator of the once-celebrated 'Mrs Brown' [ The Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, London ]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, London. 5 November 1864.
£30.00

Having left the Church of England for Roman Catholicism, Rose had had a number of well-received plays produced on the London stage before the huge success of his creation 'Mrs Brown'. 'Mrs Brown at Home and Abroad' was performed at the Egyptian Hall in 1864, and the 'Ladies' Cabinet of Fashion, Music & Romance' refers to 'Mr. Arthur Sketchley's snug little auditorium at the Egyptian Hall' for a performance of 'Mrs Brown at the Play'.

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Anonymous manuscript First World War narrative poem titled 'The Message of the King', concerning a blinded soldier who asks a doctor to kill him.

Author: 
[First World War dramatic monologue; Royal Army Medical Corps, Delhi Barracks, Tidworth, Wiltshire]
Publication details: 
[RAMC Delhi Barracks, Tidworth, Wiltshire.] Circa 1918.
£80.00

Four pages, 4to. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged ruled paper, with watermark 'D. K & Co. | LONDON'. Sixty-four lines, arranged in eight eight-line stanzas. Apparently unpublished. Evocative of the sensibilities of a more naive age: sincerely meant, but coming across somewhat in the style of a Stanley Holloway monologue.

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