GOWERS

[Sir Ernest Gowers, author of the guide to correct English usage ‘Plain Words’.] Three Autograph Letters Signed and one Typed Letter Signed to fellow-grammarian V. H. Collins, discussing a crux and the perils of being an authority in the field.

Author: 
Sir Ernest Gowers [Sir Ernest Arthur Gowers] (1880-1966), author of the guide to correct English usage ‘Plain Words’, and the revision of Fowler’s ‘Modern English Usage’ [V. H. Collins, grammarian]
Publication details: 
Autograph Letters: 27 June 1952, 27 March 1954 and 16 March 1955. Typed Letter Signed: 29 July 1953. All four items on letterhead of Rondle Wood, Liphook, Hants.
£120.00

See the entry what was wrote about him in the Oxford DNB. The archives of the recipient, Vere Henry Collins (1872-1966), are now housed in the library at Yale. All four items signed ‘Ernest Gowers’ ONE: ALS, 27 June 1952. 2pp, 12mo. In fair condition, worn and spotted, with pin holes to one corner and short closed tear at edge of one of the two folds. Begins: ‘By all means. The more I look into your book the more I realise how true what I said was.

[Royal Commission on Capital Punishment, 1950.] Published 'Minutes of Evidence' on Day 13 ('Howard League for Penal Reform Dr. Denis Hill and Dr. F. H. Taylor') and Day 27 ('Howard League for Penal Reform').

Author: 
[Royal Commission on Capital Punishment, 1948-1953] [Sir Ernest Gowers, chairman; Gowers Report, 1953; British parliamentary papers; hanging]
Publication details: 
Both items: London, His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1950.
£80.00

Two stapled pamphlets, uniform in layout, each with the ownership signature of M. Rooff at head of title. Day 13: [2] + 35pp., paginated 279-313, folio. Day 27: [2] + 25 pp., paginated 591-616. Substantially Howard League views, and mainly concerned with 'The Experience of Abolition in other Countries'. Both in fair condition, aged and worn, and each with particular wear to the title leaf.

Syndicate content