23rd Aug, 2024 10:30 GMT/BST
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Baden-Powell, Edgar Wallace, etc.
A collection of nine letters written to the Editor of the Daily Express, comprising:
Doyle (Arthur Conan). 'Spirit Messages', one page autograph letter signed (ALS), dated Dec 22, in which Doyle writes 'Every experienced Spiritualist agrees ..... this average spirit is very little more lofty than the average human ... only when ... in contact with those who are the older souls that we get high teaching and inspiration'. Windlesham headed paper, editorial annotation;
Doyle (Arthur Conan). 'The Flint Figures', one page ALS, dated Oct 18, '..... among the flint figures furnished by Mr Clarke, there are many markings which closely reproduce numerals and alphabetical letters. These seem to me to complicate a problem which was sufficiently complicated already ....'. Bignell Wood headed paper, editorial annotation including change of title to 'Queer Flints', additional cropped signature attached;
Baden-Powell (Robert). [Boy Scouts and Boxing], one page typed letter signed (TLS) from Baden-Powell dated 16th March 1926, '.....boxing in other Scout centres .... has made good progress and will I hope have good effect in developing the sense of manliness, good temper, pluck and fairplay among a considerable section of the rising generation.' Boy Scouts Association headed paper, editorial annotation;
Wallace (Edgar). [Idle Young Novelists], one page TLS dated 10th February, 1927, in which Wallace responds to a letter from Miss Thompson, 'writer of the book of the year' who had criticised him in 'so sour a letter....'. 'The author may not have much to learn .... of literary quality .... but it is possible that she needs a little coaching in the art of polite controversy'. Clarence Gate headed paper, editorial annotation;
with an ALS from Hugh Walpole on censorship; an ALS from H. de Vere Stacpoole on the rights of animals and animal slaughter; an ALS from Israel Zangwill regarding typographical changes made to his article for the book 'My Religion'; a TLS from Warwick Deeping on ambition; an ALS from Fred E. Weatherly with a ms. poem inspired by the 'buried church at Walton on the Naze.
Several of the writers were contributors to the book 'My Religion' published by Hutchinson, a copy of which is included.
Sold for £1,000
Estimated at £400 - £600
Auction: Books, Maps & Manuscripts, 23rd Aug, 2024
The Summer Book Sale includes a wide range of interesting books, maps, photographs and manuscripts. In the modern books there are first editions by J.R.R. Tolkien and Mervyn Peake, signed works by Evelyn Waugh, Siegfried Sassoon, John le Carre and others as well as a good collection of deluxe Folio Society works. Earlier books include a small collection of finely bound works published by Didot of Paris, early Law books, a seventeeth century cookery book, a sixteenth century book on Crucifixion by Lipsius, and a very early sixteenth century book using italics which caused controvery at the time.
A good collection of early travel books is complemented by an interesting album of photographs of British Central Africa as well as a small selection of early maps, including a scarce folding map of Tasmania. A typescript personal account of the British Economic Mission to the Far East in 1930 provides a surprisingly interesting read.
For the Royalists, there are signed photographs of Queen Victoria and Albert, Prince of Wales and three Christmas cards signed by H.M. the Queen Mother. The sale concludes with a section of books on Natural History, Science and Theology which includes three early editions of Darwin's Origin of Species and a ground breaking work on the human brain by Marie Antionette's physician Vicq D'Azyr, illustrated with hand-coloured aquatints.
Viewing
Thursday 22nd August 10am-5pm and the morning of the sale from 8am
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