LITERATURE

Note: Sylvia Lynd, née Dryhurst, poet, novelist, reviewer, significant member of the Book Society, Irish nationalist, daughter of anarchist and suffragette, Nannie Dryhurst (1888-1952).

Note: Sylvia Lynd, née Dryhurst, poet, novelist, reviewer, significant member of the Book Society, Irish nationalist, daughter of anarchist and suffragette, Nannie Dryhurst (1888-1952).

Note: Sylvia Lynd, née Dryhurst, poet, novelist, reviewer, significant member of the Book Society, Irish nationalist, daughter of anarchist and suffragette, Nannie Dryhurst (1888-1952).

Written out by Yonge on both sides of a card, and placed in an envelope with penny lilac stamp and postmarks, addressed by Yonge to 'Miss Marcironi [sic] | 126 Adelaide Road | London | NW'. In fair condition, lightly-aged, the card with central horizontal and vertical folds.

In good condition, lightly-aged, with thin strip from stub to one edge of address side of card. Message reads: 'It will give me great pleasure for you to copy the 2nd. volume of the Torch-Bearers, as you suggest, for the Blind. | With my best wishes, | Alfred Noyes.'

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. She thanks her for the care she took of her pocket handkerchief, and for the 'truly friendly note which gave great pleasure'. She is glad she was pleased with her book 'The Lives of the Seven Bishops Committed to the Tower in 1688', and hope she will accept a copy, 'as a trifling remembrance of me and our occasional pleasant chats together, in the lovely gardens at Fulham Palace'. She offers her remembrances to 'the Bishop of London Mrs.

2pp., 12mo. 25 lines of text. In fair conditon, on aged and worn paper. Her sister Frances is 'overjoyed at your benevolent efforts for me', and 'Mr Arthur Hall is very glad indeed to hear what you are trying to do, and is quite ready if you and I approve to send a set of my books, with a notification to Mr Gladstone, and also of privately interesting the Archbishop, who will, he has no doubt send an autograph letter privately to the Prirme Minister'. The letter ends with a prayer for her 'kind friends', concluding 'The Lord will provide'.

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, on aged paper, with light offsetting from another letter. Written in a difficult hand. Concerns 'the Club meeting' at 'Macdougall's Hall'. The recipient is addressed as 'My dear Capt Bond', and at the foot of the letter as 'Capt <?> Bond | &c. &c.'

Lamartine's letter, of 1p., 12mo, on a blank page on the reverse of the prospectus, which is 2pp., 8vo, on a bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. The letter is addressed to an unnamed individual ('Monsieur'), and consists of twenty lines of text. He has been encouraged by 'Les rapports de bienveillance intellectuelle', he is sending the prospectus for his selected works, which he has himself revised, augmented, annotated and edited.

2pp., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Having just received Buckingham's letter, he writes that he 'cannot but feel much gratified that my letter to Mr Raikes Currie should have in any way attracted the notice of a Gentleman like yourself whose name is so well known in connexion with our literature and our social progress.' He concludes by expressing an interest in the 'undertakings which have engaged, and now engage' Buckingham's attention, and by wishing him every success.

2pp., on both sides of a strip of 35.5 x 11.5 cm laid paper with fleur-de-lys watermark. In a secretary hand employing the thorn and long s. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. An untitled forty-line poem, divided into five numbered eight-line stanzas. The narrator is an older married woman, advising a younger woman not to marry, with observations on the frailties of the male sex. The first stanza reads: 'Ere ye. read ys. ye. may suppose. | That some new listed Lover. | By means of Poetry has chose. | His Passion to discover.

Letter: 2pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Closely-written with 40 lines of text. In very good condition, lightly-aged, and attached to the book by a thin strip of gummed paper. Mathews writes that it gave him great pleasure to receive Hodson's letter 'a month or two ago', and that he has only delayed replying because it has 'taken some time to get into touch with Rd. Aldington'. He gives a quotation of 24 lines from a letter he has received from Aldington after passing on Hodson's 'kind appreciation'.

2pp., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. He thanks her 'for the Daily News review. Such touching appreciation, and from you, repays us for the anxiety attending the publication of the Memoir [...] This part of Sussex seems very forsaken since you & your husband left it. If you are ever near, what a pleasure a call from you would be - or a visit, if your freedom allowed it.

The three items are in fair condition, lightly aged and creased. Totalling 7pp., 8vo. ONE: ALS. From Whiteleaf, Princes Risborough; 11 Nov. 1930. Begins 'I heard the other day of a poem of yours, that a young soldier carried about in the war, till he was killed. It was sent home with his papers, & some day I hope to have it - his own copy of it - from a friend, & to send it to you | Why tell you of this now? Because the news of your mother's death has been weighing on my mind, & I wanted to say a word, yet knew how unconsoling words can be.' TWO: ALS.

In poor condition, on aged and brittle paper, with significant chipping to edges involving loss of text, including the end of Philpott's signature. Undated, but written in 1916, the year of publication of Phillpotts' 'The Green Alleys'. Headed in blue pencil 'Mr Lynd' (i.e for the attention of Daily News columnist Robert Lynd).

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Written in purple ink. The letter reads: 'My dear Sir, | Here it is, for what it is worth. To-morrow, Jan 16, a new novel of mine, "Some Fell Among Thorns", should be published. I shall send you a copy & ask your acceptance of it. | Yours Sincerely | Andrew Soutar'. Soutar received a brief obituary in The Times, 25 November 1941.

3pp., 16mo. Bifolium. On aged and worn paper, with closed tears to both leaves along fold lines, and glue from mount along inner margin of first page. He apologises for having to decline an invitation, having 'just told Lady Grey that I would call upon her to-night'. He would have liked to see her 'to ask your forgiveness for the many blunders I have committed to-day, tho' how to appear before you I really don't know'. He will attempt to 'throw' himself on her 'Good-nature' in a day or two, and concludes: 'I believe the debate in the Lords has confused my understanding'.

15 + [1]pp., 8vo. In grey printed card wraps. In fair condition, lightly aged, with rusted staples. The author describes his work in an introductory note as 'an elegant and ingenious poem in heroic verse; suggested by the third Satire of Juvenal; wherein the foolishness of the institutions of this University, and the dullness and dishonesty of its inhabitants are for the first time properly exposed'. The influence of Samuel Johnson (another adapter of Juvenal and also an Oxford man) is strong, as the opening indicates: 'Though on my brow there rose an angry frown | When B - ll - l's [i.e.

1p., 8vo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. He thanks her for her review of his collection of children's stories 'The Spider's Palace' (1931). 'I wonder what London is like now. Here the sun is almost too fierce at midday to sit in: & the sea the clearest possible blue.'

7 ALsS and 1 TLS, three on letterheads of the London Mercury, and two on letterheads of the New Statesman; only three fully dated: 13 November 1917, 16 November 1924 and 27 November 1925, 12pp., 8vo and 12mo. Mostly on editorial matters.

3 ALsS, on letterhead of The Athenaeum journal, 12 March 1919; 102 Edith Grove, Chelsea, 16 July [no year]; on letterhead of 5 Acacia Road, St John's Wood, 'Sunday' [no date], total 5pp., 8vo and 12mo.First, he begins: 'You know I've been put in charge of this. Probably you were responsible for the job being offered me - at least I don't know who was, if it wasn't you. | I hope you will be able to write for us.' Postscript reads: 'As for Bertrand Russell, I haven't read the book. But I warn you that it is difficult for me to be humourous at any time, and impossible in this case. B. R.

ALS, signed in her maiden name of Dorothy Brooke, on letterhead of 3 Arkwright Road, Hampstead; 8 April [1937], 2pp., 8vo. She expresses grief on the death of her first husband Sir John Reeve Brooke (1880-1937). '[...] of you in particular he often talked, when we had seen you, with admiration and joy - it was a particular pleasure to him when he had seen a person or heard them talk, to go over again what had been said, and your talk particularly charmed him. [...] | Don't forget me dear Robert, though I have no charming Reeve to bring you, love me a little for his sake'.

ALS, on letterhead of Lochnagar, Bycullah Park, Enfield; 17 December 1912, 3pp., 12mo. He thanks him for the 'letter & all its encouragement [...] The book represents rather under a year's work at verse & I only hope I shall not someday have to wish it had never been other than firelight.

5 ALsS, total 8pp., 12mo.One, on letterhead of 4 Downside Crescent, Hampstead; 'Tuesday' [December 1908]. Concerning Nevinson's sacking as a Daily News journalist following his heckling of the Liberal Chancellor Lloyd George at a meeting in December 1908 in which the Daily News editor Gardiner was also on the platform (see L. J. Satre's Chocolate on Trial, Ohio University Press, 2005, pp.141-144). Begins: 'Yes, it's true enough. Gardiner sacked me directly after the meeting.

ALS, on letterhead of the City Art Gallery, Leeds; 10 March 1916. He offers to review 'Rebecca West's forthcoming little book on "Henry James"', being 'particularly interested in both author & subject'. Asks for contact details of a relative of Walter Riddall's: 'I lent him before his death one of my "To-Day" volumes which I can't replace & don't want to lose.'

3 TLsS, 6pp., 8vo and 12mo. First, on letterhead of Wood Close, Chinnor Hill, Oxon; 30 January 1925. His wife 'had not had a turn for the worse at the time of the Lamb dinner, as was rumoured.' Thanks RL for his advice regarding osteopathy. Asks if RL has 'returned the contract (for my series)' to his agent. 'I am still looking for a man to do either Reading or Talking (the last my subject, but I am willing to swop [sic]) for the first six. [...] So many people, like C.E.

2 ALsS, on letterhead of Cahirmoyle, Ardagh, County Limerick; 25 Feb. [1917?]; from Cahirmoyle; 24 March [1918], in envelope, total 4p., 4to.First: 'I am starting a League of Protest, a League to boost Nice Useless Things (I have a sort of suspicion I come under that head myself) and when everyone else is planting the cabbage where last year the wallflower flourished I am making two new gardens! [...] I've had great sorrow since I saw you, a brother I loved very much went to France, was a week in the trenches and then killed. It all seems so stupid and useless.

ALS, on letterhead of 4 Whitehall Court, London; 'Tuesday' [1924], in envelope, 2pp., 8vo. 'You know all sorts of useful things - can you tell me of any way of getting in touch with Mary Ansell - Mary Barrie - Mary Cannan - Mary? here my knowledge stops. [...] Are you "sitting under" Bernard Shaw evening after evening - as I believe is said of preachers? I am going to begin my course on Friday.'

3 ALsS, 1 TLS and 2 ANsS, all signed 'AE', three from 41 Sussex Gardens, London; two from 84 Merrion Square, Dublin; and one on letterhead of the Irish Statesman, 84 Merrion Square, Dublin, four dated between 1904 and 1933, the other three undated., totalA letter tentatively dated to 1918 or 1919 by MG begins 'It is very good & generous of you & Robert in these hard times to pass on the money received for literary work to Mrs Connolly.

6 ALsS, one ACS, one Autograph Poem and a signed photograph. 3 letters from 30 Chelmsford Road, Ranelagh, one from the Rugby Road, Ranelagh, and one from Marlborough Road, Sonnybrook; three of the letters dated between 2 Sept.1904 and 17 Nov. 1907. One letter without date or place, but written from Dublin, perhaps in 1904. Card postmarked 24 Nov. 1905. Card and two envelopes addressed to 'Miss Sylvia Dryhurst'. The letters total 7pp, 4to; 4pp, 12mo. An intimate correspondence, as the card indicates: 'My dear Miss Sylvie | I am leaving Oxford this morning. [...] I get to London Sat night.