Department of Special Collections and University Archives
McFarlin Library.  University of Tulsa.   2933 E.  6th St.   Tulsa, OK.   74104-3123 (OKT - OkTU)

Constance Holme papers

Collection 1988-001

Dates:  1932-1954.

Extent:  (2 boxes).

Level of Description:  Item level.

Name of creator(s):  Constance Holme.

Date of creation:  Undetermined.

Scope and Content:   Consists of a series of 151 letters to the English book collector R.N.  Green-Armytage, in which Holme comments on her writings and on the works of others, World War II, and her daily life.  Included with the correspondence are typescripts of a short story and several poems, Christmas cards, and press cuttings.

Administrative/Biographical History: 

Access and Copyright:

Language and Scripts:  English.

Finding aid/Inventory:  Finding aid is available online.

Provenance/Source of Acquisition:   Purchased from David J.  Holmes, May 1988. 

Date(s) of description:   Allison Granberry, Jan 1989; rev Jan 1989; rev Jun 1998.

Access Points:

Subject Headings 

 
Personal names 

Corporate names

Places
 

Inventory

8 Jun.  "I am so very sorry about your father.  The loss of one’s parents is so intensely a loss of a part of oneself...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

22 Jul.  "Of course I knew the ‘dossier’ was safe with you....Typed and signed letter, 5s.

23 Sept.  "I have been delaying a letter to you in order to be able to send you at the same time a booklet of four one-act plays which I have now printed...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

27 Sept.  "Just a line to thank you for the bookseller’s addresses and for permission to use your name with the Societies’ etc.  etc...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s

7 Oct.  "What a lovely book!...."  Handwritten and signed postcard.

12 Oct.  "I have read some of the Martin Harvey and am so delighted to have it—coming as it does so aptly on my own [---] theatrical venture...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

21 Oct.  "I am so sorry about Antonio de Navarro.  Did he never really get over that operation?...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

28 Oct.  "I have more and more to thank you for – the new addresses to which I am at once sending copies of the Booklet...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

1 Nov.  "The Booklet has won its [spurs].  Harrap was sent a copy and now wants to include “The Home of V---,” in a volume of The Best One Act Plays of 1932...."  Handwritten and signed postcard.

6 Nov.  "How kind of you to write at once about your meeting with George! I am delighted to hear that you like him both as a man and an artist...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

21 Nov. "You are quite right in your estimate of George Elton.  His integrity as an artist is complete...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

8 Dec.  "I read Isabel Clarkes’ book at once and liked it in spite of its [s---].  I am glad you think all that ‘demon lover’ business wicked nonsense....  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s

5 Jan.  "I did like having more of [dear] little St.  Francis.  And I adored ‘Concerning Dragons’ didn’t you? The de la Mare ballad is fascinating isn’t it? But I couldn’t help feeling a bit peeved about Herod being forgiven, after all those poor babies!...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s.

13 Jan.  "Your letter touched me so much that it almost made me weep How more than kind you are even to care whether I have worries...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s.

19 Jan.  "The Gilbertian twists and turns of my household, which, in less than three months, have presented such complications as flu, arthritis, appendicitis and nervous breakdown, together with incidental husbands in and out of work like people in cuckoo clocks distracted me to such an extent that I can never be sure of performing anything at a given time...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s.

30 Jan.  "It was so kind of her [Mrs.  Green-Armitage] to listen to my play and I was so delighted that your son liked it enough to read it twice straight away...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s.

5 Feb.  "Your letter, as usual, was a great pleasure.  As a matter of fact, I felt rather [---] when it arrived for fear I had offended you by my treatment of the Gospels...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.  Includes press cutting in reference to reading of the Bible.

7 Feb.  "This is just to send you a copy of ‘Chocs’ that I had by me...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

8 Feb.  "I have taken your advice.  News came that the house was to be put up to auction on the 23^rd and altho’ I nearly died in making the decision to buy, I did decide, and my broker accepted the offer at once...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

10 Feb.  "This is the original ‘[---] Folks’ in a cheaper cover.  I wish I could give it to you, but rather think I have no other copy my own ‘first’...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

14 Feb.  "I was pleased to find you liked ‘[The] Stepmother’ as I was vexed with myself for sending it, feeling it to be too long and commonplace.  ‘The Return’ as you say, is so apt at the moment...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

21 Feb.  "It is lovely to see ‘Chocolates’ and ‘The Return’ in proof! I am so delighted that you are doing the latter, too...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

10 Mar.  "I have felt rather anxious owning to the non-arrival of ‘Chocolates’ not because I was clamoring for it, pleasant as it will be to see it, but because I wondered if something had gone wrong with you...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

12 Mar. "Your exciting parcel arrived last night.  How beautifully you do things! That sort of attention to detail which is a courtesy and a delight in itself is so rare in these days...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

13 Mar.  "Do forgive me, but my hand is too shaky to finish signing today...."  Handwritten and signed postcard.

14 Mar.  "Here are the signed Chocolates.  I am so sorry that some of the signatures are rather blurred...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

17 Mar.  "I’m glad the verses returned home all right and that you did not think them too disgracefully signed.  I enclose Mr.  Milford’s letter in return for his copy...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s with Humphrey Milford letter attached.

24 Mar.  "I summoned up courage to go into Owlet-Ash today for the first time.  It was wonderfully warm and dry (it faces south) considering that it has been empty for 17 months...."  Handwritten and signed postcard.

25 Apr.  "I have wanted to write to you for long [sic], to thank you for your kind [---] letter, and to ask for news of you, but I have been very wretched[?] and often have difficulty in using my hands...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s

19 May.  "You must think I am treating you very badly, but I am so often prevented from writing by the pain in my hands and Handwritten and signed letter I have felt so depressed and cut-off from everything worthwhile that no letter I could write would be worth receiving...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

26 May.  "I am so terribly sorry about your sister, and so ashamed that I did not mention her accident when I last wrote...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s.

11 Jul.  "I feel sure you must think that your photographs have stricken me into an awed silence...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s.

28 Aug.  "This time you must really think that I have thrown a stone at you for good, especially as I have not even had the courtesy to acknowledge your gift of the Housman [---], which I liked so much and long to discuss...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

22 Sept.  "Herewith a few scrappy sentences from your feeble minded friend.  I conclude you are back from London and Paris by now?...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

28 Nov.  "I am sure it is my turn to write.  R.N. G. A.  being of so much more courteous and alkaline a turn of mind than ‘C. H.’...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

Christmas.  "Yes! Isn’t Cmas terrible! The only thing is it doesn’t give one time to break one’s heart...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

4 Jan.  "Of course I shall be delighted to allow any friend of your to recite ‘Chocolates.’ I do hope she won’t find it a flop!...."  Handwritten and signed card.

11 Feb.  "Do forgive me for not writing you so long.  My excuse is the usual boring one, that I have been ill...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

18 Feb.  "I was so pleased to hear from you again that I must send you a second scrawl soon if not instantly in order to cajole you into writing another letter...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

16 Mar.  "I am so glad you saw dear George.  I heard from him this morning saying that you had met.  I like your philosophically celestial description of him...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

5 Apr.  "Thank you so much for writing to tell me how sweetly I was being remembered by your kind wife.  I am always most touched to find that somebody wants to read my books again...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 4s.

1 May.  "I must thank you, too, for liking ‘Crump’ Preface, and for the really wonderful things you say about it.  I have been surprised to find that it is liked, for, although I did take pains over it, it was written in the sheer desperation of necessity...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

11 Jun.  "You will be troubled, I am sure, to hear the news of Dame Clara Butts’ son and of her own illness.  I am so sorry about it all.  I remember you said the boys were so splendid.  This is a bad year for musicians...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

16 Oct.  "I write to you from the midst of an inferno! The house, having been more or less torn to pieces by plumbers is now being completely wrecked by electricity men...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s.  Includes press cutting of an article about Holme appearing in the Birmingham Post, 25 Sept 1934.

Christmas.  "The miracle of elegance and literary charm which I had hoped to send you as a letter for Cmas seems to have vanished into thin air....2s.

Jan.  "Of course I shall be delighted to allow any friend of your to recite ‘Chocolates.’ I do hope she won’t find it a flop!...."  Handwritten and signed note.

11 Jan.  ""How very kind you were to write me such a comforting letter! You take so much trouble over your friends – a trait for which I have always so much admiration.  I had not occurred to me that David Garrett’s dislike of ‘The Trumpel’ was due to the totally different – and Socialistic – attitude of him and his kind towards life...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

14 Jan.  "I was so pleased to see your handwriting again and must write at once to thank you for your reception of my suggestion about George...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

31 Jan.  "Of course you shall have a manuscript.  I could not write yesterday (as I wished) to set your mind at rest but hope to get this off today.  I am not sure, though, that there is a ‘Trumpel’ MS...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

4 Feb.  "I am glad ‘The Trumpel’ reached you safely, and that it is not too despicable an object for an exhibit...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

28 Mar.  "Thank you so much for telling me of the impressive show that ‘The Trumpel’ [---] illustrations is to make at the Festival.  I thought that Nick and Wat would be glad of the advertisement...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

19 Apr.  "Herewith no Hot Cross Bun but only an Easter Card...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

31 May.  "I am so sorry I have not written.  I went down with violent sciatica a month ago and when the worst was over came here (last week) to get mended up...."  Handwritten and signed postcard.

23 Jun.  "F.  B.  Punchard to Green-Armitage.  My wife is very sorry that she cannot write to you herself but hopes to do so before long...."  Handwritten and signed postcard.

10 Jul.  "F.  B.  Punchard to Green-Armitage.  My wife was very pleased to receive your very kind expressions of sympathy.  She is improving but very slowly...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

6 Aug.  "It has been sheer illness that has kept me from acknowledging your most kind enquiries, not only sciatica but other things; Also ceaseless worry and often inability to use my hands for writing...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

28 Oct.  "Well now – literary news: meaning of course with my usual egotism, mine.  ‘The Lonely Plough’ is going into John Lane’s ‘Penguin’ sixpennies in the Spring and I have been busy looking thru’ it and compiling the necessary material for the jacket...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s.

14 Jun.  "With regard to my own feeble efforts, you will probably know that the new Oxford Bookshelf edition of The Lonley Plough  and Crump is now out, as well as the Penguin edition of the L.P....Typed and signed letter, 2s.

15 Jun.  "So very sorry about G. K. B.  You will be grieved...."  Handwritten and signed postcard.

4 Jul.  "The only thing I can sayis that his is the first short story that I have written for about ten years.  I had forgotten how to write such a thing and fought with it in misery and rage writing and re-writing with dictaphone pen and typewriter...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

1 Sept.  "Much has been happening – paralysingly much.  First of all, as it is partly yours – the ‘Bone’ was accepted weeks ago by ‘Country Life’ (with a charming letter from Christopher Hussey) but has not appeared yet...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s.

13 Sept.  "Yes, it’s lucky, isn’t it about the ‘Penguin’? I’m delighted but none of these reprints mean much money...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

Christmas.  "A gibbering idiot sends you this, who means to write you a long letter shortly...."  Handwritten and signed note.

3 Jan.  "The man Osborne, of whom I wrote you, and who has twice bout copies of my plays asked for an MS of mine for a client, preferably ‘The Lonely Plough’...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s.

14 Oct.  "Lovely of you to say that ‘The Wisdom’ utterly delighted you.  The odd and ends of MSS.  And typescript which composed it have already been bought by W.  Lazarus...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

17 Oct.  "I am grateful for your very kind sympathy with regard to my play and for returning the Rag programme.  I am Also immensely interested in your idea of the ‘Truth of the Theatre’...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

20 Oct.  "It was good of you to write at once.  It would be tragic for me, at least – if our friendship were to end in misunderstanding...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

Christmas.  "I don’t know whether you will care to add these trifles to your C. H. collection but I send them on the chance with my best wishes...."  Handwritten and signed note.

29 Dec.  "Your second letter came tonight.  I am indeed ungrateful not to have written before, but my life lately has been a web full of holes...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

15 Oct.  "One must develop a verbal shorthand, such as ‘Unwant Hitler any price’ which was a Columbia refusal of a Hitler broadcast at the beginning of his ‘reign’...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s.

27 Oct.  "I did not dare to say too much in mine [letter] for fear of causing that deep division which is one of the most terrible features of the present situation.  In this house we agree about the Chamberlain policy...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s.

 5 Dec.  If as I fondly hope, you are able to write me a line for Cmas, tell me what you think of this extraordinary speech by Lord Londonderry...."  Handwritten and signed note.  Includes related press cutting excised from the Yorkshire Post.

29 Dec.  "The devil is in it! Of course this is the only paper upstairs just when I am determined even I if the house falls about my ears to start a letter to you before I get out of bed...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 4s.

3 Feb.  "I see no point in being brave since our innumerable dictators are obviously no respecters of persons but regard us merely as pawns in their terrible game...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 5s.

Christmas.  "I don’t know what you must think of me—no letters for so long, no recognition of your kind gift, no Christmas remembrance...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

30 Jun.  "I have had a strenuous time painting gates and garden and stable doors, etc.  – quite a la Hitler – as I find it (1) keeps up my morale (gets me out into the sun) and (3) enables me to watch for parachutists in the fields...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s.

14 Jul.  "Do Faith, Hope and Love ever in peril stand? I think of them as independent of human behaviour – more as permanent fountains or springs from which anyone may drink...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

3 Nov.  "This breaking of all connections, spiritual as well as physical, that the war has brought about makes one long for constant reassurance of the welfare of one’s friends...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

18 Dec.  "The enclosed ‘Ploughing Order’ was written direct on the typewriter, and, with my usual smug self-esteem, I am sending it to you, hoping that, after eight hundred years of owning the same land you may like the idea....Typed and signed letter, 2s.

Christmas.  "I’m simply horrified.  That such a thing should have happened to you!Indeed, sympathy seems almost an insult, since you are honoured in suffering for the honour of England....Typed and signed letter, 1s.

14 Jan.  "The destruction of the ‘holy name’ part of London makes me feel quite sick.  I haven’t heard from Sir Humphrey whether Amen House has been touched....Typed and signed letter, 2s.

28 Feb.  "I have asked ‘Country Life’ to send you the issue containing ‘Ploughing Order.  But can I get any reply from them? I can not...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 4s.

Mar.  "I am so sorry about your beautiful nephew – sorry for you and his mother and the nation.  Otherwise, it is impertinent to be sorry for a hero’s death...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 4s.

19 Jun.  "I have now a contract for two more books with Penguins.  I refused it at first as I thought various clauses unsound, but they accepted all my amendments...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 4s.

11 Oct. "My Penguins have been selling very well but there is such a shortage of paper that I feel anxious about next year...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s.

Christmas.  "Would you care to have the enclosed Clare Leighton print?...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

16 Mar.  "I haven’t written much about the war, as if I once begin writing about the political muddle, I shall have an attack of [---]! But oh what couldn’t I sa...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

28 Apr.  "I am very much agitated about this Bath raid...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

 5 May.  "Thank God you are safe!I have been very anxious about you and have prayed for you.  A very rare and precious thing would have gone out of my life if you had gone...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

20 Jun.  "I don’t get better, I get worse.  The doctor who may be called at any moment wants another opinion...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

2 Jul.  "I have been too bad to write as I wanted to do.  The [---] remains about the same – no worse, I think but I am and the doctors think it may be so, too, if not checked...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

29 Dec.  "I must thank you for liking my verses.  I wish I could have heard you reciting them! Where they came from, I don’t know.  One never does know with verse...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s.

30 Mar.  "I am in such a tearing rage about what has happened in the House of Commons that I can’t help writing to you at once...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s

Christmas.  "I do hope you are really recovering, and not just pretending.  So many people need you – so many to whom you have been so generous and kind...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

30 Jan.  "I am so sorry I could not answer your most kind letter at once or return (as I should have done) your son’s delightful article...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

23 May.  "My husband had been failing for some time this year...."  Handwritten and signed note.

28 May.  "One feels so lost at a time like this that the reassurance of a real friend helps one to maintain a hold on life...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

16 Jun.  "Money.  I have never made large sums but during the War Sir Humphrey and the Penguin people sold my books well so that we were able to keep going...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

31 Jul.  "My chief difficulty is that I have so few educated people with whom to discuss difficulties.  That is why I shout at you so loudly across England...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s.

7 Sept.  "I have so wanted to write to you, but the thousands of jobs that lie in wait for me all day long won’t let me settle down...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

4 Oct.  "Of course – of course! How could I forget it? I saw Martin Harvey in ‘the Burgamaster.’ A beautiful performance...."  Handwritten and signed note.

11 Oct.  "All the real romance of my working life was bound up with the theatre from my very childhood’s days and even tho’ the final evolution of my books into the ‘Worlds Classics’ gave me an enormous thrill it was not that thrill...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s.

5 Nov.  "My play (‘The Gates’) had a secondary theme – the mixed loved and jealousy the ‘artist manque’ often feels for the pure genius...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

Christmas.  "The anthology seems full of beautiful things, but I dare not read it at present as it makes me cry too much...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

1 Feb.  "I couldn’t help laughing over your letter even tho’ I had been crying with pain before and generally do when I get up in the morning...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

15 Mar.  "And to think that I never told you about our dear George Elton!...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

15 Mar.  "All through this horrible time has run a golden streak – my joy in writing bits and pieces that kept pouring into my mind (my little verses were in CL in March)...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 5s.

25 Mar.  "I was wonderingwhy one hates being called ‘clever’ except when one is very youngor very old and perpetrated the following: When I am old, and full of aches and pains, And counting up my miserable games...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 4s.

Apr.  "Wasn’t it curious that my capacity for writing plays left me completely after my breakdown in 1920?"   Handwritten and signed letter, 4s.

18 Jun.  "It was curious you should think my own play writing might return.  It wasn’t so much the technique that left me as the dialogue...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 10s.

12 Jul.  "So sorry I was vague about The Oxford Press! They have only the original Classics rights (2/- or 1/q I forget which) and the 3/q ‘Bookshelf’ which I think has now run out and probably won’t be re-printed...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 5s.

21 Jul.  "So many thanks for your letter, card and address of Clique...."  Handwritten and signed postcard.

30 Jul.  "I can breathe a little at the moment for I have just send [sic] off a lo9t of small MSS to Bertram Rota and left him to do what he can for them...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 7s.

27 Aug.  "I wonder if we have yet reached the rock bottom of disaster that you seem to think necessary before the nation will rouse itself?...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 8s.

18 Sept.  "Why life has become so turbulent and full I can’t quite make out.  I suppose it is partly due to the disorganization caused by war and the Government, also with Oxford University Press publication notice for the Westmorland novels...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 5s.

7 Oct.  "There is something about Traherne that is infinitely touching as well as exciting.  He really does make one believe that Heaven lies about us...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s.

25 Oct.  "This is just a line of explanation in case you have not yet heard from Nesta Sawyer with regard to your valuable gift of the Traherne...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

15 Nov.  "I was so pleased to hear that Nesta had been able to write to you about the Traherne...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

4 Jan.  ...."You won’t need telling after this exposition, or is it exhibition?, of senile decay that I have been ill...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 5s.

28 Jan.  "It is not easy for a woman to be the simple and natural devotée of an art as a man canI have had to be ‘house wife,’ ‘agent’s wife,’ Mrs.  Punchard, with Constance Holme squeezed in somewhere and anywhere...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s.

7 Feb.  "One thing that puzzles me is the insistence on the absence of leisure, for surely there never was a time when there was so much?...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

16 Feb.  "I want to say how worried I am about the pressure life is putting upon you...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s.

26 Apr.  "Rebecca West had a theory that maid servants broke things and were otherwise unsatisfactory because sub-consciously they wanted a home of their own...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

2 Aug.  "I told you about Lord Horder and my Insurance Act verses, didn’t I? But not, I think, about Mr.  Cumberlege’s Assistant Publisher and his rude letter about ‘dropping’ “Ploughing Order”...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 4s.

27 Oct.  "We will not talk, I think, about Russia or the mad Health Insurance Scheme, or whether the Conservative Party is becoming any more conservative...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

14 Nov.  "One must let beauty grow out of beauty.  But I think it was this passion for crystallization that made me a writer...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

Christmas.  "I owe you for thanks for two lovely letters and a lovely gift, yet I have found it impossible even to send my good wishes for Christmas...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s.

1949

11 Jan.  "The Plumber was very much pleased with the verses and I am sure your kind attention has helped to keep the central heating going...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

29 Jan.  "I long to sit at your feet and drink in everything you can tell me about the drama and other things...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

21 May.  "So very many thanks for your kind commendation of my ‘valediction’ which indeed it almost proved to be as I had a rather bad bout of illness just when the verses were published...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

8 Aug.  "My own ‘career’ (if one can have such a thing, nowadays except in films, radio and games) shuffles along uneasily – uneasily because of the Oxford Press’s slow methods...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s.

26 Aug.  "Herewith Dorothy Wellesley and Matthew Arnold.  [‘Resurgain’] I sent before, so all square...."  Handwritten and signed postcard.

Christmas.  "The Oxford Press is treating me very badly.  My sales and their stock are getting less and less and Mr. Chamberlege seems to resent being written to even occasionally...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s.

17 Feb.  "They [Oxford University Press] behave as though I were dead, and my books their property already, whereas all the contracts have run out long since...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s.

18 Apr.  "What you tell me about the Oxford Press shocks me horribly.  What exactly did they do about the Clarendon History copyrights?...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 7s.

24 May.  "The Press tells me that it is sending you the leaflets but please burn them rather than allow them to be a burden to you...."  Handwritten and signed note, 1s.

14 May.  "Hell 1.  Is the long worry over the ‘New’ Oxford Press, with attempts to find out whether my books were really wanted, either now, or after my death....Typed and signed letter, 2s.

2 Jan.  "I often wonder why I still exist – my work – such as it is – was done long ago...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

5 Aug.  "My agent says that many publishers seem so casual today that he wonders they make any sales at all! He, too, blames the distribution centres for holding up books and says that even in London they have to wait many days for a book unless they send especially for it...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s.

15 Feb.  "Life has been a nightmare of pain and worry and so often I can’t use my hands or arms without pain...."  Handwritten and signed note, 1s.

29 Mar.  "I don’t know what the right approach to happiness is, today.  Religion isn’t wanted, or beauty or Nature, or contemplation or literature...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s.

18 Apr.  "I suppose you are loving this amazing summer weather? Personally I find it trying and I expect we shall pay for it...."  Handwritten and signed postcard.

24 Apr.  "Lately, I have been daunted by a desire to finish my play ‘The Gates,’ an 18^th (?) century story with the underlying theme of the unhappy jealousy of the non-creative artist...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

Christmas.  "As you say, everybody seems to be in trouble of some kind.  There must be something wrong, both with the Heavenly and Earthly Managements of the world for life to be so consistently distressing...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s.

1 Mar.  "I wonder whether reading will disappear in time battered out of existence by television etc.? I can’t imagine that anything could take the place of that wonderful personal contact between writer and reader...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

13 Mar.  "One can see oneself moving into smaller and smaller houses driven by taxation, prices, and rates until one ends in the gutter and is thankful for a grave...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s.

29 Aug.  "I do understand your desire for your own home and your own fireside, but I have suffered so much here from endless difficulties that I shall be glad to creep into some little hut where I need only switch on hot water...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s.

24 Feb.  "So glad you liked my savage effort! I doubt if anybody would print it though...."  Handwritten and signed postcard.

9-11 Sept.  "Oh, yes, our ancestors would have been horrified by the vulgarity of the B.B.C. and the screen, the lack of dignity and good taste, and the finesse that goes with a high moral outlook...."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s.

“The Bird.”  Excised poem from Country Life.

“A Bone for My Servante.”  Carbon copy typed and signed draft with handwritten revisions, 11p.

Chocolates.

“Chocolates.  A Cautionary Tale of Mistaken Courage.” Carbon copy typed and signed draft, 4p; Carbon copy of same bearing R.N. Green-Armytage stamp.

The Dictators.

“Evening Prayer in August.”  Carbon copy typed and signed, 1p.

“Finger Trees.”  Carbon copy typed draft.  1p.

Four One-Act Plays.

“Martha and Mary.”  Carbon copy typed and signed draft, 1p.

“The New Resurrection-Men: To Certain Members of the Medical Profession.”  Carbon copy typed and signed draft, 1p.  21 Feb 1948.

“Ploughing Order.”  Carbon copy typed and signed draft, 1p.

“The Return.”  Excised poem from Country Life.

“Tin Hat.”  Carbon copy typed and signed draft, 1p.  Marked “Country Life.”

The Trumpet in the Dust.