V.

On 14 x 9 cm plain printed postcard, addressed (by the recipient) to ‘Norman Wetton / 7 Claremont Road / Forest Gate / Essex’. On the plain side of the card she writes: ‘With pleasure here is the sign-manual of your’s [sic] faithfully / John Strange Winter. / (Henrietta. E. V. Stannard.) / Aug 24. 1905 -’.

See Knox’s entry in the Oxford DNB. The two items are in fair condition, lightly aged and creased, each with a couple of lightly-rusted pin holes. Clemens’s plain card, with stamps and postmarks, is addressed to ‘E. V. Knox Esq / c/o Punch / London, England.’, and is signed ‘faithfully / C C Clemens’. The message reads: ‘Dear E.V. Knox / We hope the life of President Truman reached you safely? / The Society is arranging a symposium on democracy You may care to send your definition of democracy and a few comments.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. A good large bold signature, with the autograph valediction of a letter. On one side of a 20 x 9 cm piece of wove paper. In good condition, lightly aged. Reads: ‘Your’s [sic] very truly / V. Lovett Cameron / Commander R. N.’ See Image.

Lansing Van der Heyden Hammond (b.1906), son of the distinguished organist and choirmaster of Mount Holyoake College William Churchill Hammond, was for many years Director of the Commonwealth Fund Division of International Fellowships. For Bonham Carter, see his entry in the Oxford DNB. The present group of six items shed light on the 1940s administration of the Commonwealth Fund. They are in good condition, lightly aged and creased. The autograph letter is 1p, 12mo; the five single-spaced typed letters total 6pp, 4to. All six are signed ‘Lance’. ONE: ALS, 10 January 1948. 1p, 12mo.

See the entries of members of her extraordinary family in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice for postage, and accompanied by envelope with stamps and 1950 Edinburgh postmark, addressed by her to ‘Adam Dickson Esq. Junior / 28 Comely Bank Grove | Edinburgh’. Signed ‘Winifred Peck’. Responding to an autograph hunter, she writes: ‘Dear Sir, / How kind of you to like to [sic] my books & to say so.

Rieu was the son of Charles Pierre Henri Rieu (1820-1902) of Geneva, Keeper of Oriental Manuscripts at the British Museum, and elder brother of Emile Victor Rieu (1887-1972), both of whom have DNB entries. In 1947 he had privately printed (as’J. L. R.’) a ‘Chronicle of the Rieu Family now settled in England’. 2pp, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased. Folded twice. Signed ‘J. L Rieu / Commissioner in Sind’. An nice sidelight on the workings of the Raj. He has been asked for a letter by ‘Mr. Mansing Ramsing’, on behalf of his son ‘Mr. Bhojraj M.

Pritchett’s ‘The Gentle Barbarian: The Life and Work of Turgenev’ appeared in 1977; the present letter is clearly addressed to his editor at the book’s publishers Chatto & Windus. Pritchett’s entry in the Oxford DNB describes his handwriting as ‘legendarily ugly and difficult to decipher’, but the present example is no worse than an average hand. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Two fold lines. He is sending his ‘Turgenev’, and explains: ‘As you will see I have marked passages from the book in purple crayon, and my own summary bridges in green.

The diary is a 4to, with around 100pp. (a week’s entries on each leaf). In worn and marked printed olive boards with cloth spine; internally good and sound on lightly-aged paper. No ownership inscription, but from the E. V. Knox papers, and with entries in Knox’s hand and that of his wife Mary, illustrator of Mary Poppins, and daughter of ‘Winnie the Pooh’ illustrator Ernest Shepard. The eighteen inserted items, in good overall condition, are described here before the contents of the diary.

See Knox’s entry in the Oxford DNB, along with those of his father Edmund Arbuthnott Knox, his brothers Ronald, Dillwyn and Wilfred, his wife the ‘Mary Poppins’ illustrator Mary Shepard (daughter of Ernest Shepard) and his daughter the novelist Penelope Fitzgerald. At the time the present material was composed Knox had been involved with Punch for more than four decades (1904-1948), holding the editorship for the last sixteen, with the magazines circulation rising to a peak of almost 200,000 as he approached his retirement.

For information on Graves see the generous obituary of him in The Times, 18 April 1944. Both items in fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with minor staining from paperclip to first leaf of letter. The work was not published, and although Graves states in Item One that the greater part of the text is 'in the hands of my typist', there is no record of its survival, or of the thousand related documents he states were sent to him by M. H. Spielmann. ONE: ALS from 'C L. G.' to 'Dear Evoe'. 4pp., landscape 8vo.

According to the Oxford DNB entry on Carter's wife the crime writer Margery Allingham (whose book jackets were among those he designed): 'Their amiable, childless marriage was funded by Allingham's increasingly successful fiction. And, although Youngman Carter assisted his wife as a sounding board for plot design, and by producing covers and illustrations for her work, he found it difficult to sell his art.

See Knox's entry in the Oxford DNB, along with those of his father and three brothers. 8pp, 4to. Paginated and complete; on eight leaves held together with a rusting paperclip. In fair condition, aged and creased. A fair copy, with occasional emendations. There is no indication that this essay was published. A polished piece of writing by an accomplished essayist, lightly humorous but with serious intent, Knox's aim being to put forward the view that modern childhood is more self-indulgent than that of previous generations, and results is the self-deceit of adults who have never grown up.

The signatures feature with no other text on a single page, on one side of a 15 x 18 cm leaf of thickish cream paper removed from an album. In fair condition, aged, and dusty, with slight pinkish-red staining on edges, and not near any of the signatures. The signatories are: 'Hugh Walpole', 'Dunsany' [Lord Dunsany], 'Alec Waugh/', 'V S Pritchett', 'Lionel Hale.', 'Norman Collins', 'Philip Jordan' [Philip Furneaux Jordan (1902-1951), journalist and author], 'A. G. Macdonell.', 'Ivor Brown', 'J. B. Priestley', 'C. S. Forester'.

11 + [1]pp, 4to. Stitched with pink thread and unbound. In fair condition, lightly aged. Nicely printed on laid paper, with cover illustration in black and green of view from back of stage of dancer receiving a bouquet from an audience. The second page gives details of the performance, with a list of the names of the 'Executive Committee'. The programme is on pp.3-11. Divided into 16 numbers. After five songs, the main feature (numbers 6-15 pp.4-8) is 'Chelsea on Tiptoe | New Version', with 'A Prologue | Written specially for “Ellen Terry's Bouquet” | By E. V.

Long's obituary in the New York Times, 6 September 1998, describes her as 'war correspondent for The New York Herald Tribune and The New York Times who covered the London blitz and the Nuremburg trials' and 'one of only a few women who were correspondents in World War II'. She had joined the New York Herald Tribune's London bureau in 1941, and subsequently married Raymond Daniell, chief of the New York Times's London bureau, joining that newspaper as a reporter in February 1942.

1p., 8vo. Signed at bottom right: 'E. V. L.' Sixteen lines of verse, divided into two eight-line stanzas, beginning: 'As I went down to Hertfordshire | To visit Hatfield Oak, | I met the prettiest girl, to whom | Courageously I spoke.' The conceit of the poem is that the girl is the 'Queen of Hearts', and the author is trumped in his suit of her by the king, the last two lines reading: 'The King strode in, the Queen to win, | And I – I lacked the Ace.' Charles Lamb, whom Lucas greatly admired and whose works he edited, had particular links with the county of Hertfordshire.

1p., 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. Addressed in type to 'My dear Shepard,' but with the last word corrected in autograph to 'Ernest'. He has now 'made sufficient progress with Monmouthshire' to be able to give Shephard 'a line': 'The first two verses bear upon the Wye valley and the Usk valley, of which Tintern is the best symbol.

For information on Graves see his generous obituary in The Times, 18 April 1944. Both items in fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with minor staining from paperclip to first leaf of letter. The work was not published, and although Graves states in Item One that the greater part of the text is 'in the hands of my typist', there is no record of its survival, or of the thousand related documents he states were sent to him by M. H. Spielmann. ONE: ALS from 'C L. G.' to 'Dear Evoe'. 4pp., landscape 8vo.

Card with stamp and postmark. Of the two addresses in her letterhead, she has deleted the London one (105 Hallam Street, W1). In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Addressed to 'Secretary to | E. V. Knot [sic] Eq. | Offices of “Punch”'. The card reads: 'Miss de Casalis hopes to broadcast Mr. Knot's “Reparation” at the end of her turn on Friday 27th 9.35 to 10.15 (Forces programme) & again on Sunday to Forces abroad.'

2pp., 8vo. In good condition. Clausen is writing to Lucas in the latter's capacity as chairman of the London publishers Methuen & Co., and the letter is a 'note of introduction' for Clausen's 'friend Mr Curnow Vosper, who has written and illustrated a children's book, which he wishes to submit to you. | Mr. Vosper is a painter, a member of the old Water-colour Society, and I have no doubt his work is known to you. I hope that you may find this his latest work, of interest.' Vosper does not appear to have published any book during this period, either with Methuen or anybody else.

Anthony Powell describes Audrey Lucas in his journals as 'Evelyn Waugh's on and off mistress for some years'. 2pp., 12mo. In fair condition, aged and lightly creased, with pinholes to one corner. One catches a hint of the clipped and brittle tones of the age: 'I have been away in the country and ignoring newspapers as a rest. It was only today that I heard of Herman's death. So, will you forgive me for not having written before to say how very much I grieve for you. I am so terribly sorry.

1p., 4to. On aged and worn paper. Thirty-eight lines of text. Written with the forced Wodehousian bonhommie of a desperate man. He has had an operation at a nursing home, so the beginning of the letter needs to be taken metaphorically: 'My dear Finck, | This is a nice kettle of Fish and no mistake! | Came out of jail day before yesterday, but only on ticket-of-leave. Strict police supervision for two years - finger-prints - strawberry-marks - nothing kept secret! | However, they say they can make a job of it and my tail, such as it is, remains vertical.

xiii + 297pp., with frontispiece and four plates, and six-page publishers' catalogue at end. Blocks of text have been cut out by Lucas, between pp.205 and 232, and the three leaves carrying pp.199-204 have been removed. Otherwise in good condition, in worn burgundy cloth binding, gilt. Lucas has written 'With corrections for Second Edition' at the head of the title page. (There was no second edition.) Emendations throughout in pencil and pen.

This small archive provides an interesting insight into the world of mid-twentieth century antiquarian bookselling. In excess of one hundred items, the collection being in good condition, lightly aged and worn, including 61 typed letters, invoices and quotations by the firm, all on its letterhead, and around 30 drafts of the letters to the firm from a somewhat difficult customer, with an interesting range of interests, his purchases dating between the seventeenth and the twentieth century, on such subjects as Russian antiquities, bookplates, the classics, Rossica and Oscar Wilde.

4pp., 16mo. Bifolium. A scarce piece of First World War ephemera, on creased and aged paper. The certificate has been made out in order to enroll 'Dorothy Marion Cameron Bower' into 'Detachment [8] in the County of [Westmorland]', but has not been signed by her. The first page carries the conditions of use, the second a declaration by the signatory, and the third the permit itself, with facsimile signatures of Arthur Stanley, Chairman, and Louis Pearson, Hon. Secretary, and the actual signatures of Henry Gandy, County Director, and John Mason M.D, Commandant.

Lucas's letter is 1p., 4to. In fair condition, lightly spotted. He informs Wilber that when he arrives at the office the following morning, he will find that 'the two portrait tablets of the late Sir Algernon Methuen, the founder of our firm, have been unveiled'. He explains that the tablets are 'a gift to the firm from Lady Methuen, whose wish is that each member of the staff should possess a copy of the accompanying Memoir'. The booklet is 13pp., 4to. With three plates including collotype frontispiece portrait of tablet of author.

1p., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Reads: 'Dear Sir: | I have nothing at present except some note book sketches, otherwise I should be pleased to acceed to your request. | Yours truly | A. V. S. Anthony'.

Stapled printed pamphlet. 11 + [1]pp., 16mo. In good condition, on lightly aged paper with rusted staples. A page of officers, headed by the Archbishop of Westminster as President, and Rt Rev. Abbot Upson as Vice-President, is followed by Burke's five-page report, and then three pages of balance sheets for the organisation, 'Focus', general funds, 'Penny-a-Day' Fund, and 'Fatima' Fund. No other copy traced, either on OCLC WorldCat or on COPAC.

Printed in black on one side of a 12.5 x 16.5 cm piece of card. A charming image, framed within the drawn curtains of a theatre stage, showing four snowmen, dressed as toff in top hat, flat-capped figure with spade, lady with shawl and umbrella, and bowler-hatted figure with muffler and broom. At head of image 'A Merry Christmas', and at foot, 'from E. V. & Mary Knox'. In blue ink in border at foot of page: '110 Frognal. N.W.3.' and 'Hampstead 7330.' Mary Knox's father E. H. Shepard was the illustrator of the Winnie the Pooh books.

Both items are 2pp. 12mo, on bifoliums. Both in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. ONE: 'I was so sorry I couldn't come this afternoon - especially if he was a simple kind of American publisher. Owing to a rash fit of indulgence in Church going I had to have tea elsewhere'. TWO: Letter of condolence on the death of Robert Lynd.