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BOOKS AND LETTERS FROM THE LIBRARY OF ANTHONY POWELL
Lot 323
ORWELL (GEORGE) Autograph letter signed ("George"), to the novelist Anthony Powell ("Dear Tony"), thanking him for his Brief Lives and Other Selected Writings of John Aubrey, "I'm reading Dante! (with a crib of course)", Cranham Lodge, Cranham, Gloucestershire, 6 June 1949
24 June 2015, 11:00 BST
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £5,000 inc. premium
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ORWELL (GEORGE)
Autograph letter signed ("George"), to the novelist Anthony Powell ("Dear Tony"), thanking him for his Brief Lives and Other Selected Writings of John Aubrey ("... I'm so glad you did put in my favourite Mrs Overall after all, also the story about Sir W. Raleigh & his son...") and saying how sorry he is to hear about Hugh Kingsmill's death ("... If they are trying to get a pension for his widow, if my signature would be useful in any way, of course include me..."); and describing his own health ("... I'm a good deal better, & trust this will continue. I had a specialist from London, who said much the same as the people here, ie. that if I get round this corner I could be good for quite a few years, but that I have got to keep quiet & not try to work for a long time, possibly as long as a year or two years—I trust it won't be as long as that. It's a great bore, but worth while if it means I can work again later. Richard is staying nearby for the summer, & comes over & sees me once or twice a week..."); hoping that he and Muggeridge can come round and see him some time and ending with the postscript – "I'm reading Dante! (with a crib of course)", 2 pages, small mark at bottom left-hand corner, 4to, Cranham Lodge, Cranham, Gloucestershire, 6 June 1949
Footnotes
'I'M READING DANTE!' – Orwell to Powell six months before his death. Several people noticed with surprise that the avowedly atheist Orwell had taken to reading Dante during the last weeks of his life. Kingsmill had died on 15 May. Our letter is included in the selected edition, George Orwell: A Life in Letters.
The following January, Powell helped organize Orwell's funeral at All Saints, Sutton Courtenay: 'It fell to me to choose the hymns: All people that on earth do dwell (I felt Orwell would have liked the Old Hundredth, if only for the name); Guide me, O thou great Redeemer (chiefly for my own wartime associations, though Jehovah is more authentic); Ten thousand times ten thousand (Why, I can't remember, perhaps Orwell himself had talked of the hymn, or because he was in his way a sort of saint, even if not one in sparkling raiment bright). The Lesson was from Ecclesiastes, the grinders in the streets, the grasshoppers a burden, the silver cord loosed, the wheel broken at the cistern. For some reason George Orwell's funeral service was one of the most harrowing I have ever attended' (ibid., pp. 320-1). See illustration on preceding page.