[Sir Arnold Wesker, playwright.] Two Autograph Cards Signed and three Typed Letters Signed to Philip Dosse, proprietor of Plays and Players, with one Typed Letter Signed from his secretary Margaret Groom.

Interesting content. 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 six items are in good condition, lightly aged, and one lightly creased with wear to one edge. The four letters are each 1p, 4to, and folded for postage. One of the letters is signed ‘A. Wesker’, the others ‘Arnold Wesker’. ONE: Wesker TLS, 10 September 1972. He looks forward to reading the lecture Dosse has sent him ‘as soon as the dust from numerous crises clears’. TWO: Wesker ACS, 4 February 1973, from Munich. ‘It’s the city where Ibsen lived and premiered Hedda * to awfull [sic] reviews; where Manchester United lost the cream of its team in a crash; where the Israelis were murdered; where Brecht did his best production of Mother Courage with the fabled Therese Giehse at the Kammerspiele (* Also at the Kammerspiele) / I’m in the 4th week of directing the Old Ones here - at the same Kammerspiele - in a complicated set but with a brilliant cast. Thanks for the cheque’. THREE: Groom TLS, 18 February 1973. As Dosse appears to know that Wesker is in Munich he will understand that she is not ‘sending any letters on to him or keeping a pile-up for his return’. FOUR: Wesker TLS, 20 March 1973. He begins ‘PLAYS AND PLAYERS does look good and in fact I think I shall begin reading it regularly but I noticed that it was getting better under Peter Buckley.’ After a reference to ‘what Peter Ansorge is doing’ he states that he finds ‘the enormous list of names of reviewers which appears at the front’ of Books and Bookmen ‘a very daunting sight; perhaps it is a matter of age and for younger people the thought of so much reviewing and information about literature inside one magazine is exciting. I find my heart sinks at the thought of so much being produced.’ FIVE: Wesker TLS, 1 August 1973. He is submitting an article he hopes will interest Dosse for Plays and Players. ‘There’s one quote missing from the front page, I’ll get it Friday and send it to you, Pinter on his play directed by Visconti in Rome.’ He reports that he is going to direct ‘Their very own and golden city’ in Aarhus the following February. ‘The set up is an exciting one - nearly eight weeks rehearsal, a fine English set designer Haydn Griffiths.’ SIX: Wesker ACS, 31 December 1973, from Poland. Begins: ‘We’re here in Poland spending royalties from THE KITCHEN.’ He has met with the editor of the literary magazine Dialogue, ‘who says she met with four from Plays & Players last year, including Ansorge, and arranged to exchange Polish theatre magazine but has never received P & P.’ He asks for copies to be sent, and if it is ‘not policy to send complimentary copies to foreign counterparts then book me and I’ll settle on return’. He gives her name Margaret Semil and address.