POETRY

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. With the cover of the letter's envelope, addressed to H. A. Bright at Trinity Collrge, Cambridge. Both letter and cover in fair condition, lightly aged and worn.

1p, 4to. In good condition, with slight creasing to extremities, on a leaf of 'Onion Skin' paper. A sixteen line poem in three stanzas, beneath which is written, boldly and in pencil: 'W B. Stanford | Trinity College | Dublin'. The poem is one of Stanford's best and best-known, and features in Donagh MacDonagh's 'Poems from Ireland' (1944) and Brendan Kennelly's 'Penguin Book of Irish Verse' (1970). The present version exhibits no variations from the text printed by Kennelly.

Good clear signature on one side of slip of paper, an irregular rectangle roughly 1.5 x 12.5 cm. In fair condition, aged and worn, with traces of mount on reverse. Reads: 'Your's [sic] most affectionately | James Hogg'.

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, aged and worn. Folded once. Wretched handwriting, resulting in the following tentative transcription. He begins by saying that he is sorry she has been ill, adding, 'I have no advantage over you in that matter. The [?] and [?] got hold upon me.' Regarding the celebrated circulating library, he writes that 'Mudie's little game is 'not to [buy?] another little [me?], knowing that he can weary out the public. | I have therefore to circulate my own copy among students, but it is out at present.

Five items in good condition, all lightly aged. ONE: ACS. Signed 'Kathy'. 1 March 1990. Clearly a covering note on sending the other material. Simply reads: 'Good to speak – | love | Kathy'. TWO: Duplicated copy of typescript of speech by 'Fr. John Gilling'. Headed: 'REQUIEM MASS: St. Mary the Virgin, Bourne Street. 7th February 1990. | JONATHAN GRIFFIN'. 2pp, 8vo.

1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly-aged. Folded three times. Sixteen-line poem, neatly typed (with one error overtyped an autograph proof mark separating two words) titled 'For Andrew Young. 1885-1971.' Signed at bottom 'Richard Church.' A charming poem, which was published in the Cornhill Magazine in 1971.

Three items (letter, photographic card, and pamphlet), all in good condition. ONE: ALS. 31 December 1954. 1p, 8vo. Signed '(Mrs.) Rita Spurr.' and addressed to 'Dear Mr. Christopher Fry'. She begins by thanking him 'for the very great pleasure & stimulus' which she derived 'during the year that is passed' from his play 'The Dark is Light Enough'.

Both items in good condition, lightly aged, as is an enclosure to the second letter, a photocopy of Lowbury's pamphlet 'A Letter from Hampstead'. ONE: 24 September 1969. 2pp, 12mo. In envelope addressed to Fry at his East Dean home The Toft. He is grateful for Fry's letter praising his collection of poems 'Figures of Light'.

2pp, landscape 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Begins: 'Dear Christopher Fry, | I am sorry to contradict you, but I showed my co-editor, the poet Rodney Pybus, your poem “For Edmund Blunden”, and we both [last word underlined] feel it should be published, and that we would like to publish it. Please.' In the hope that Fry will agree, he asks him to 'sign and return an acceptance form and send us the biog. note you would like to print alongside the poem'. He continues: 'I do hope you'll agree.

1p, landscape 12mo. In good condition, folded twice. With envelope addressed to Fry at his East Dean address. Fry has written at the head of the cover of the envelope: 'From Norman Nicholson'. After thanking Fry for his 'good wishes at Christmas', Nicholson continues: 'I, too, am sorry that we have not met, which – unless you are ever in Cumberland – seems less likely than ever, as I am much less mobile since the death of my wife.' He presumes Fry has learnt of his bereavement from Edward Lowbury, 'for I know that you were a friend of his father-in-law's'.

Both 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Written in Whistler's calligraphic hand. ONE: 13 December 1961. He will be 'so pleased' if Fry will accept a copy of his poems, 'which I like to send you because of my admiration for your work, and sense of sympathy with what you express, or create'. TWO: 21 August 1963. 33 lines of text, written following the death of his friend Christopher Hassall.

1p, 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged and creased. Folded once. 'I was hoping you would make a suggestion about price. I had at first thought of asking £5 for each copy, but if you would throw in that copy of my father's book (my own is in pieces) I suggest £12 for the three. Of course I want you to make your profit.' He ends by asking if Hancox would like the books signed.

Pepys's house at Brampton is the subject of an article by Chris Partridge in the Observer, 30 May 2004, which states that 'The first earl, Edward Montagu, was Pepys's cousin and patron, giving him the political clout to further his career in the Navy Office. In 1927 the then earl gave the Pepys House Trust a 100-year lease at a peppercorn rent, and it has been open to the public ever since. All three items in good condition, lightly aged. Drinkwater's second letter and Chappell's draft reply pinned to one another. ONE: Drinkwater to Chappell, 31 May 1933. TLS. 2pp, 4to.

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and a little grubby. Folded once. Twenty-seven lines of text. Written in a far more ragged style than Bridges's usual calligraphic hand, perhaps suggesting undermined health. Wilson is 'at liberty to quote the verses of mine that you ask for – I take it as a complement [sic]' He thanks him for 'the kind gift of your book, wh I have not had time to read'. Noting that Wilson is 'interested in sacred wells', he states that 'our “Chilswell” is probably not a well.

On one side of square of paper cut from a 12mo leaf. In fair condition, aged and lightly creased. Folded twice. Reads: 'For Coals and the School | With Lord Tennyson's | Compliments and best Wishes | May 1 / 85'. Presumably 'the School' is the Blue Coat School at Aldworth, and it seems that Tennyson was sending a cheque for the purchase of 'Coals', possibly as part of a tradition.

[12]pp, landscape folio. Sewn with red thread. The words 'The Big Grey Man' on cover and title-page in red ink, rest of pamphlet in black ink. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. A 48-line poem, in eight six-line stanzas, spread over three rectos, signed at end 'Richard Rowley.' Inscribed on title-page: 'Mrs. Brown. | With best wishes for Christmas | from | Mr. & Mrs. R. V. Williams. | 1942.' Six bucolic illustrations reproduced from woodcuts by Annesley, including one on cover. Colophon on recto of last leaf, with printers' slug on otherwise-blank reverse.

Proctor was a much loved individual in literary circles, from the days of the London Magazine to the mid-Victorian period, in which he was the dedicatee of both Thackeray's 'Vanity Fair' and Wilkie Collins's 'Woman in White'. His reputation as a poet was international: he was thought highly of by Pushkin. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to blank reverse. The letter reads: 'Dear [Harris?] | Pray tell me where [?] I can have some conversation with you about some patients of the name of [Lealer? Lester?], whom you know.

On 17 x 12 cm leaf of thickish paper, removed from 'The Meredith Birthday Book'. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Scratchy signature, underlined. In one of three printed boxes of red rules on one side of the leaf, the other side bearing quotations from George Meredith for the days 25 to 27 April.

One page, 12mo, bifolium, fold marks, grubby, some staining, text clear and complete. "Dr Freinds Complements wait upon Mr Garth. If Colonel Cracherode has executed the two Deeds he begs the favor of Mr Garth to deliver them to his Servant the bearer." A Google snippet view (from The Genealogist) discusses a situation in which Cracherode and Dr Robert Freind are executors, perhaps in a family will.

The letters are in fair condition, lightly aged; the card is discoloured and stained. Loosely inserted in a copy of Williams's 'Thomas Cranmer of Canterbury', 75 + [1]pp, 8vo, with the ownership signature 'Christopher Fry' on the front free endpaper, in worn binding with fraying at head of spine. Delightful and revealing letters, mixing personal and business (Williams worked for the Oxford University Press and Fry was published by them). ONE: ALS from Southfield House, 17 December 1941. 2pp, 12mo. Thirty lines of closely-written text, on a leaf of ruled paper torn from a notebook.

115pp, 12mo. In good condition: sound and tight, on browning War Economy paper, in green cloth with slight bloom, and in slightly worn and chipped browning dustwrapper. (The subtitle 'A Play in Three Acts' features on the dustwrapper, but not on the title-page.) Fry's ownership inscription 'Christopher Fry' is in blue ink at the top right-hand corner of the recto of the front free endpaper. A verse drama from the library of the leading twentieth-century English exponent of the genre, after T. S. Eliot.

55pp, 8vo. In fair condition, internally tight and sound, on browning paper, in lightly-worn blue cloth binding. No dustwrapper. Slight dink at head of spine. Ownership inscription 'Christopher Fry' in blue ink at top right-hand corner of recto of front free endpaper. Fry and Williams were on cordial terms, the latter working for Oxford University Press and the former being published by them.

The letters are in fair condition, lightly aged and worn, except for the third, which is damp-stained with closed tears at head and foot. The book is in fair condition, without dust wrapper. All four letters are signed 'W. H. Davies.' The first three are addressed to 'Mr Harris', and the last (an ANS rather than an ALS) to 'Mr Fry'. Each is 1p, 12mo. Letter One: 23 March 1928; Malpas House, Oxted. After reading his poem, Davies states, 'I begin to think you ought to take some step towards publishing, as soon as you have enough material.

[12]pp, 8vo. Paginated to 14, but twelve pages on six leaves, comprising half-title, title and eight pages of text. Sewn into raspberry printed wraps. Title with engraving of the church, duplicated on front cover. Internally in fair condition, with slight creasing, but with blue ink (or wine?) stain at foot of outer edge of front cover. Bloomfield & Mendelson A46, which states that the edition was printed in November 1963 and limited to 250 copies, 'sent out to a number of personal friends whose names were mainly suggested by Mrs. MacNeice'. In this case, from the library of Christopher Fry.

2pp, 12mo. On a bifolium of grey laid paper, with fleur-de-lys 'J M & Co' watermark. In good condition, lightly aged, with creases from having been neatly folded three times, and stub adhering to edge of blank second leaf of bifolium. The item derives from the collection of a notable nineteenth-century autograph collector, Lord Houghton, a friend of both Taylor and Norton.

The son of Sir John Kennaway of the East India Company, Kennaway was well-connected. In 1819 Poet Laureate Robert Southey provided him with a letter of introduction to Walter Scott. ONE: 'Poems of Rev. C. E. Kennaway, M.A.' (1846). xv + 216pp, 12mo. Black leather binding, with stamp of Nisbet & Co, 21 Berners Street, London, on front free endpaper.in gilt, stamped with the words 'Bagster's Binding'; all edges gilt. Internally a good tight copy on lightly-aged paper; in worn binding, especially at the spine and hinges. Bookplate of Sarah Godley.

ONE: TLS. Ithaca, NY; 20 September 1976. 1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. The letter begins: 'Dear Christopher Fry, | I so relish climbing the castellations of your wit, to where I feel energized and deliriously long-sighted, or running higgledy-piggledy with your thoughts, at times as if with the bulls of Pamplona, I simply cannot resist telling you so any longer.' According to her 'internal calculations' she owes him 'at least a galaxy for the delight your plays have given me; perhaps you'd accept these few planets instead'.

[3] + 210pp, 8vo. Disbound, and wrapped in brown paper. A tight copy, on aged and spotted paper, with small closed tear to title-leaf, which also has manuscript misidentification of the author as 'J Kotz[...]' in one margin. There is no copy of this first edition at Cambridge University Library, and the only two copies found on COPAC at Leeds and the British Library. The same year saw a 'Second edition, with an elegant frontispiece', published in London and 'printed for W. J. and J. Richardson; J. Harding; Shepperson and Reynolds; H. D.

All three 1p, landscape 12mo. All in good condition, lightly aged. ONE: 9 December 1974. He thanks him for 'the invitation […] But as I'm teaching full-time here now, this would be very difficult to arrange as far as schools visits would be concerned. (I asked the Arts Council to take my name off the schools list, but they don't seem to have done so).' He suggests a 'reading during the holiday break, perhaps. One aimed principally at adults, I mean.' The 'London Poetry Secretariat/Arts Council link-up' might 'provide some kind of subsidy'.

On slip of grey paper, roughly 4 x 13.5 cm. In fair condition, lightly aged, with traces of paper from mount adhering to the blank reverse. With two unobtrusive vertical fold lines. Reads: 'Kindest regards | Yours sincerely | Edward Lear.'