SPENDER

115pp., 8vo. In red cloth binding. No dustwrapper. Aged, with back hinge sprung and one bumped corner at the back. Excellent inscription by Spender on the front free endpaper, in which he describes the history of the composition of the play: 'To And | with love from | Stephen. | March 16 1938. | This play begun January 1933, at Barcelona, partly written in January 1937 in Madrid & Albacete, and finished January 1938 in London, is almost a record of our friendships through five years.'

Two pages, 12mo, good condition. He explainsthat his jokey depiction of Downing College in his novel is influenced by Dr F.R. Leavis having "intervened to make the secretary & the Literary Society withdraw an invitation for me to address that Society - so it was a private joke with myself to make the rather objectionable Dr Stockmannjjj go to Downing College where Dr Leavis was a kind of dictator. A poor joke in bad taste." He explains who Dr Stockmann was based on. In a postscript he speculates that Swain had met one of his brothers in 1942.