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Lot 137

MacINNES (COLIN)

22 November 2011, 10:30 GMT
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £375 inc. premium

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MacINNES (COLIN)

Nine letters, comprising five autograph and four typed letters signed ("Colin"), to the poet, critic and pacifist, Derek Savage, a friend whose views he values highly: lively and revealing letters, discussing his novels ("...Absolute Beginners is about the teenager thing – with, incidentally, the only account that has appeared, so far, of Notting Hill, 1958..."), his work for television and radio, his mother Angela Thirkell ("...a natural winner on the radio chiefly because she has a ripe voice, can express her thoughtless thought fluently, and, best of all, doesn't give a damn about what 'the folks' think..."), his great-grandfather Burne-Jones ("...almost total inability to draw... thoroughly miserable..."), L. P. Hartley ("...A little...goes a long way..."), etc., 23 pages, mainly 8vo, London, 1954-1959 where dated

Footnotes

MacINNES ON CITY OF SPADES, the first of his well-known London trilogy (followed by Absolute Beginners): "You are absolutely right to say the book hasn't a 3rd dimension: i.e., an existence in depth. What follow are not excuses, but explanations. 1. The material is so totally unfamiliar to most readers, a lot of the action would have been incomprehensible without a lot of stage-props and scenery. 2. I wanted to portray the Spade world in a descriptive way - tell them what is. 3. June in her Spring was not a profound book, but I was trying to work that way. Result: hardly any reviews, & total financial failure. If I didn't come up with something more likely to succeed, I don't think the publishers would have looked at me a third time.... Therefore it is a picaresque book, only, which only hints at its themes, & does not realize them. I think I'm in the position of saying I aimed at that, don't, at this stage, regret not having aimed deeper, & achieved what I aimed at".

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