WALTER

Publishing history does not get more vivid than this. See Flower’s obituary in The Times, and Wells’s in the New York Times. The three items in good condition, lightly aged. All three folded once and signed ‘Newman Flower’. First TLS (3 January 1928): 1p, 12mo. He writes that although ‘a very apologetic letter from Mr. Wells of Harpers’ has ‘cleared the air entirely’, ‘a reply from Holt’ received at the same time is not very satisfactory’, and ‘in view of the fact that Cassell’s and Harpers will be coming together again, it would, perhaps, be as well not to do anything at present’.

The fourteen items are laid down on three pages, on two leaves of grey paper, removed from an album, on the reverse of one leaf are two coloured coaching scenes by Randolph Caldecott, one featuring a highwayman. The overall condition is fair, with creasing and signs of age. The Autograph Letter Signed is from Crane to 'My dear Stanley Little'. 1p., landscape 8vo. With letterhead of Beaumont Lodge, Shepherd's Bush, featuring an illustration by Crane of a shepherd and sheep. 20 September 1892.

It seems extraordinary that they were able to pull this off during wartime restrictions, and Dickens would have relished the shabby-genteelness of it. The menu is shakily printed in a faded blue on a 10 x 16.5 cm piece of cream card, with rounded edges. At foot: ‘Holborn Restaurant 7th February 1942’. The menu is headed: ‘THE DICKENS FELLOWSHIP / 130th Anniversary of the / Birthday of Charles Dickens / Chairman: WALTER DEXTER, Vice-President / Speakers: HUMPHREY HOUSE, JAMES AGATE’.

In addition to the entry for Prothero in the Oxford DNB, see those of H. W. C. Davis (1874-1928) and H. W. V. Temperley (1879-1939), which reveal the interest all three had in the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. Both items in good condition, lightly aged. Each folded once. Both addressed to 'Davis'. ONE: 7 November [1921]. 4pp, 12mo. Dictated, and entirely (including signature) in the hand of an amanuensis.

Williams, who has an entry in the Oxford DNB, became a close friend of Spalding and her sister Anne after lodging with their parents during the Second World War. The present item is a transcription, made and printed out around the 1980s, of the 1961 radio programme, on one side each of 34 numbered pieces of A4 paper, loosely gathered by a black plastic spine.

A nice slice of London ephemera. The three items are in good condition, lightly aged. They were clearly all sent together. ONE: ALS from Westley (‘W. Westley | Hon. Sec.’) to unnamed recipient. 2pp, 12mo. In answer to an application he is sending ‘one New Programme showing Waters &c’, pointing out that not all are ‘Trout Waters’, and that ‘about 30% of the Members only take part in competitions’. He explains that they have had good (he mistakenly writes ‘few’) membership over the previous two years, ‘but at the present time there are a few members’. TWO: Printed ‘C.L.P.S.

See Mercer’s entry in the Oxford DNB. 20 lines on both sides of a 12mo landscape letterhead. In fair condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Mercer has the proverbial handwriting of a doctor, rendering the present item somewhat difficult to read. He begins by thanking Goodwin for the ‘lovely surprise’ of ‘a packet of the War Effort Canadian stamps in mint condition’, which (illegible name) ‘didn’t get the length of Edinburgh as he has been called to the Pacific’.

See the entries on author and recipient in the Oxford DNB. The subject of the letter Alan Dent, began his career as a prot?g? of James Agate. Although a somewhat histrionic figure, Wolfit's reputation rivalled that of Gielgud and Olivier, and his influence was acknowledged by both Harold Pinter and Peter O?Toole, and Ronald Harwood based his play and film ?The Dresser? on him. 1p, 4to. In fair condition, on lightly-aged and wrinkled paper, with slight nick to bottom-right, and evidence of paper clip. Folded once.

6.5 x 11 cm calling card, with the words 'The Governor of Massachusetts' printed at centred of one side. Above this Bullock signs 'Alexander H Bullock', and below it '1867'. On the reverse Bullock writes: 'For | Master | Walter G. Webster'. In good condition, lightly aged, with the reverse carrying traces of grey paper mount at the four corners.

2pp, 18mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased. Folded once. Written in a close, elegant hand. Written on receipt of a presentation copy of MacQueen-Pope's latest book, the letter begins: 'My dear Popie, | Thank you so very much for St James's, Theatre of Distinction. I think I am enjoying it even more than I usually enjoy your individual-theatre books, because the St James's meant so much to me. It was the first London theatre I ever went to - long before I could read or went to a school.

1p, 4to. In fair condition, lightly aged, with tissue labels from mount adhering to the reverse. Folded twice. Embossed letterhead with US seal. Salutation and valediction in Page's autograph, with addition of an exclamation mark. Addressed to 'Lady Lloyd, | 26, Great Cumberland Place, | W. | Enclosure.' He has had 'two moods' about the 'touching letter' that she is enclosing, but believes that 'the best thing to do is not to send it to Berlin'.

1p, 4to. Typescript with a couple of minor autograph corrections. Unpublished, but perhaps relating to her 1945 book 'Ariadne and the Bull'. At foot, in Farjeon's autograph: 'From E. F. | 20 Perrin's Walk | N.W.3.' In fair condition, on aged and worn paper, with nicking and loss at edges. A chatty and entertaining retelling of the story. As an example of the tone, early on Farjeon writes: 'The Minotaur was a monster with the gigantic body of a man topped by a bull's head; his father was a bull and his mother was Pasiphae, Minos's Queen.

2pp, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. In envelope with stamps and postmarks, addressed by Landor to 'Stephen Wheeler Esq | Oriental Club | Hanover Square | W.' He begins by acknowledging his letter, adding: 'I am quite of your opinion regarding the papers which are to be disposed of at the Browning's [sic] Sale'. Landor will 'try to get some of the autographs', but suspects that they 'may go too high'. He would have great pleasure in seeing Wheeler should he be 'in this neighbourhood', and gives details of when he will be at home.

1p, 12mo. On bifolium with mourning border. In fair condition, lightly creased and worn. Folded once. Reads: 'Dear Capt [How?], | I am expecting you to morrow Thursday at Princes Restaurant 1.30 pm | Yrs vy sincerely | A H Savage Landor.' Endorsed in pencil on reverse: 'author of IN THE FORBIDDEN LAND. | EXPLORER TO TIBET. | IMPRISONED | TORTURED | DECEASED'.

Fourteen items, including three letters from Starkie and seven letters from the Oxford University Press – five of them from Geoffrey Cumberlege and two from G. W. S. Hopkins – and copies of two letters from Cumberlege to Fry's agent Emanuel Wax, and a copy of a letter from the OUP to Starkie. All dating from 1955. The collection is in fair condition, lightly aged and worn. The three Starkie letters are all in autograph, and total 7pp. The first two are written from Madrid, and the last from the Athenaeum in Pall Mall.

Four pages, 12mo, bifolium, good condition. "Yes! I am y[our] man or whatever of y[our] who while still [?] jolly twenties sent almost my earliest printed brochure to Landpor & was surprised enough [& pleased as Punch!] to see his reply to in Frazer's [sic] Magazine [..]." He no longer has copies of the Magazine or the privately printed item he send ("piece of presumption") which concerned spelling in C17th writers - "everyone spelt as he pleased" so it should be modernised.

Both items in good condition, but the postcard (of a Viennese street scene) with stamp torn off. ONE: ALS. Signed 'Walter (Rilla)'. Vienna; 7 November 1966. 1p, 8vo. Twenty-six lines of text, in a neat close hand.

Feldborg is mentioned several times in Southey's correspondence, and at one point contemplated translating Southey's life of Nelson into Danish. See Duke's entry in the Oxford DNB. The three letters are in fair condition, a little brittle and lightly aged and worn, with a closed tears along fold lines. The third letter has loss to second leaf from breaking of seal. Excellent energetic letters, giving a good indication of Feldborg's character and the circle he moved in while resident in England.

Ainsworth's 'Thesaurus' (1752) neatly defines 'The Royal Aid, or subsidy money' as 'tributum quod regi ex plebiscito in sumptus belli, &c. praestatur'. It was a one-off household tax, set by assessors and collected locally. (For further information see M. J. Braddick's 2013 paper 'Resistance to the Royal Aid and Further Supply in Chester, 1664–1672'.) The present two documents are each laid out in identical fashion, the two carrying different assessments for 'Land' and 'Goods' for the same 58 individuals.

The present item is the producer Hugh Burnett's own copy of the transcript of John Freeman's interview of Cecil Beaton, broadcast in the BBC series 'Face to Face' on 18 February 1962. Duplicated typescript. 4pp, foolscap 8vo. Numbered, and headed 'CECIL BEATON', otherwise consisting entirely of the transcript, with no other details. Aged and worn, with punch holes for binder. On four leaves which were originally stapled together, but with the first and last leaves now detached. Page references 1-10 (presumably to a shorthand transcript) in the outer margin.

De la Mare's definitive answer to the oft-asked question regarding the meaning of his best-known poem - and also one of the most celebrated English poems of the twentieth century - 'The Listeners'. 1p, 4to, in good condition, lightly aged, folded twice. After thanking her for her 'kind letter', he adds: 'I am afraid you may not find my answer to your question a very satisfactory one.

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with rust-spotting at foot and to one margin. An interesting document relating to the early days of women's admission to British universities. The recipient is the geologist Ernest Westlake (1855-1922), and the subject is his daughter Margaret Agnes Westlake, who would become a diploma student at St Hugh's. Westlake's papers are held at the Museum of Natural History, Oxford. Marett thinks it is 'a bother about your daughter not being able to enter Somerville, but Somerville is not Oxford'.

1p., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. He cannot accept her dinner invitation as he has 'promised to go to the Red Lion dinner & as the friend who got me the invitation there had I fear some trouble to do so, I do not like to withdraw'.

4pp., 4to. Bifolium. Signed at end: 'Edward Seymour | Jesus Coll. | March. 1815.' In fair condition, lightly aged. Holograph manuscript of the poem 'Wallace', in 78 lines, Iambic pentameters. Preceded by the following note: 'Lines written for the Chancellor's medal for English Poetry, in the University of Cambridge. In consequence of illness they were never completed.' Apparently unpublished.

2pp., 4to. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased. Addressed to 'Dear Mr Green-Armytage', corrected from 'Armitage'. The letter begins: 'You may have heard that a Committee, of which Walter De la Mare is chairman, is considering the question of putting up some sort of memorial to Edward Thomas. At the same time I am beginning work on a Life and Letters of Edward Thomas, which has Mrs Thomas' approval, and is intended to be something in the nature of a memorial edition.' He will 'shortly be issuing an appeal in the press for the loan of letters etc in the possession of E.

Three 12mo letters in good condition, lightly aged and worn. An interesting batch of letters, in which one minor Victorian poet critiques the work of another, both to the author himself and to his publisher. The three books by Smith which are the subjects of Tupper's letters are 'Olrig Grange' (1872), 'Borland Hall' (1874) and 'Hilda Among the Broken Gods' (1878), all of which were published by the Glasgow publishers James MacLehose and Sons. ONE: Addressed 'To the unnamed Author of Olrig Grange'. 4 December 1874. On letterhead of Albury House, near Guildford. 4pp., 12mo.

2pp., 12mo. On bifolium with mourning border. In good condition, lightly aged. He writes that he has only just received Allchin's letter on his return from the country. 'Please ask Sir George Burrows to call at any hour in the day most convenient to himself.'

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. He praises Macgregor's book for representing 'most faithfully the spirit of the original. This I take it is the chief merit of any translation.' Macgregor's 'employment in this manner so distinct from the ordinary pursuits of the leisure of an officer, proves the work to be “con amore”'.

1p., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Tipped in onto paper mount. Reads: 'Mr Gally Knight requests Mr Radley to let him have a Room for a few Hours on Monday Morning - He & Mrs Knight purpose to be at Liverpool about twelve oclock & will go to Manchester by the 1/2 p 2 Train. - They wish to have some Luncheon between one & two oclock.' Scott's Ivanhoe is set near to Firbeck Hall, and Knight may have been his source of local information.

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged. Begins: 'Mem. for Mr Henry Gray | I have received your Catalogue dated April 25th. | Will you send me, if still in hand, […]'. A list of five works follows, the last four French, including Sarah Scott's Utopian "Millenium Hall", following which Besant writes: 'for wh. I will remit by return post – on receipt.'