Skip to main content

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

Lot 187

WHITE (ANTONIA)

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

Sold for £525 inc. premium

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our Books & Manuscripts specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Ask about this lot

WHITE (ANTONIA)

Series of ten autograph letters signed ("Toni" and "Tony"), nine to the verse translator Brian Hill, one to his partner George Dunbar, about her life and writing, and those of her correspondents: among her own books, she refers to her novel Beyond the Glass as well as her translations, and reviews; bemoans as always her writer's block for which "mental treatment" is needed ("...I hope it will succeed but am none too optimistic..."), although she still manages mercifully to translate since "translating is my bread-and-butter job"; she also allows herself to complain about her fellow Catholics for being "so frightfully pleased with themselves", and at the end of a long and moving letter written on hearing of George's death tells Hill that "The only comfort of being a 'Christian' is that one can pray for one's friends, dead or alive, as for years I have done daily for both of you"; much of the correspondence is otherwise taken up by generous praise and encouragement for Hill's work, praising especially his translations of Rimbaud published as The Drunken Boat ("...an astonishing tour de force..."), his anthology The Pleasure Garden ("...fascinating...immensely personal...a lovely jumble of the poetic & the odd..."), The Earth Closet (expressing "amazed admiration" for its "brilliance & ingenuity"), and his translations of Martial published as Ganymede in Rome ("...He wasn't considered suitable at St. Paul's Girls' School... such delightful little poems, so lyrical & so witty that both you & Martial deserve to be congratulated..."); with one envelope, 19 pages, 4to and 8vo, London, 1950-1971

Footnotes

'THE ONLY COMFORT OF BEING A 'CHRISTIAN' IS THAT ONE CAN PRAY FOR ONE'S FRIENDS, DEAD OR ALIVE': a fine series by Antonia White, author of Frost in May, on her fears of insanity, writing, faith and friendship – we can find no record of any letter or manuscript by her having been sold at auction.

Saleroom notices

Please note the correct estimate is £400-600, and not as stated in the printed catalogue.

Additional information

Bid now on these items

ADVERTISING POSTERfor 'The Suffragette' newspaper, [c.1913-1914]

ARCHITECTURE - STUART (JAMES) AND NICHOLAS REVETT The Antiquities of Athens, 4 vol. bound in 2, 1825-1830

ILLUMINATED ADDRESS – CLARA CODD Illuminated printed address signed by Emmeline Pankhurst, [1909]

ARMENIAN - HISTORY, THEOLOGY AND PRINTING. Group of books/a map in Armenian, c.1825-1901 (12)

MUSIC & RECORDINGS – ETHEL SMYTH Collection of printed music, song sheets and records, [c.1911-1912]

BANK NOTES - MANUFACTURING BRADBURY (HENRY) On the Security and Manufacture of Bank Notes, FIRST EDITION, Bradbury and Evans, 1856