[Sheila Shannon, poet, and wife of Patric Dickinson; personalised] Copy of her poetry collection 'The Lightning-Struck Tower, inscribed to her husband's mistress Sarah Hamilton, with two ALSs from her to Hamilton, and two printed keepsakes.

Sarah Shannon (married name Sarah Dickinson) was a fine poet in her own right (see the blurb quoted in Item One below), and it is unfortunate that she allowed herself to be eclipsed by her husband the self-styled ‘poet and impresario of poetry’, Patric Dickinson. He occupied a central position in the cultural landscape of post-war Britain. As an editor and broadcaster he worked with poets such as Dylan Thomas, Cecil Day Lewis and Roy Campbell, actresses Flora Robson, Peggy Ashcroft and Jill Balcon, and actors Robert Donat, Ralph Richardson, John Gielgud. See John Mole’s obituary in the Independent, 31 January 1994. These five items come from the papers of Dickinson’s mistress Sarah Emmeline Hamilton. (PD’s extraordinary correspondence with Hamilton, including 171 original and mostly-unpublished poems, 474 autograph letters and 349 post cards, is offered separately, and includes more letters from Shannon to Hamilton, along with Piers Plowright’s funeral address for Shannon). ONE: Copy of ‘The Lightning-Struck Tower’. 64 pp, 8vo. In red cloth in brown and black dustwrapper. In fair condition, lightly aged, in worn and aged dustwrapper. Inscribed on front free endpaper: ‘for Sarah - / with / my / love - / S. S. / 2. 3. ’4 [2 March 1964?]’. Blurb: ‘During the last six years Sheila Shannon has worked in close association with the late W. J. Turner during his editorship of the well-known Britain in Pictures series and, more recently, co-edited with him the series of illustrated anthologies called New Excursions into English Poetry. / For some years she was poetry reviewer for the Spectator in which paper many of these poems first appeared; others have been printed in various periodicals and some have been broadcast in Patric Dickinson’s programmes of New Poems.’ TWO: ALS (19 February 1965): Air Mail letter from ‘Sheila Dickinson / 38 Church Square / Rye, Sussex / England.’ Addressed to: ‘Miss Sarah Hamilton / The Swiss Farm Excelsior / Frausch Hoek / CAPE / South Africa -’. 2pp, 12mo. A long letter, expressing concern about Hamilton’s health and mood on her long trip. She has gone from Rome and needs to see a ‘TOP TONSILS EXPERT’. She gives home news and signs ‘Sheila’. THREE: ALS ( 16 June 1994): 2pp, foolscap 8vo. To ‘Darling Sarah’ and signed ‘Sheila’. The greater part of the letter describes PD’s memorial service: ‘David [their son] & Ginny [his wife] & I all felt that the gathering had turned out exactly as we had hoped - & perhaps even better - I was apprehensive beforehand - but so many people came, of all ages & interests, & responded so readily & warmly that I felt there was a happy feeling & that, as at Charing, it was right for Patric - I thought David was absolutely wonderful & I know how very very difficult he found it was to do - & yet he did it with all the tenderness and wit & honesty which must go with anything said about Patric’. She also praises the BBC producer Piers Plowright, and the two readers of PD’s poetry Elizabeth Bell and ‘Ronald [Pickup]’. FOUR: Printed keepsake on light-blue card of poem 'HEN BLACKBIRD' ('It seems I have a faculty / For rescuing birds') by 'P.D. printed on one side. On the reverse, dated by Hamilton to 1998, is the following in Sheila Dickinson’s autograph: 'for / Daphne & Sarah / to bring you my fondest wishes for Christmas - / & with my love - / Sheila.' FIVE: Printed keepsake, on light-green card with the poem 'Often in Dreams' ('Often in dreams I wander / Through splendid cities that seem') by 'P.D.' printed on one side. On the reverse, in Sheila Shannon's hand, 'for Daphne and Sarah - with my love & all very best wishes for Christmas and hopes for a much better and less troubled New Year. / Sheila - / Patric's dreams often became poems & I chose this one because I remember him waking up & telling it to me. It had made him happy - / S.'