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Lot 192

BETJEMAN (JOHN)
Series of twelve autograph and typed letters signed, to Anthony and Lady Violet Powell, showering praise on Powell's novels, Westmeath, London and elsewhere, 1937-1968

15 June 2016, 14:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £2,500 inc. premium

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BETJEMAN (JOHN)

Series of twelve autograph and typed letters signed, to Anthony and Lady Violet Powell, showering praise on Powell's novels ("...I have just finished reading from a view to a death which was in my bedroom over here in Ireland and what with violet staying here at pakenham hall I felt i must write and tell you how very good the book was... i don't know when i have laughed so much when reading a book and the gloom of its final chapters I found very congenial..."), assuring his wife that "Tony gets cleverer & cleverer & funnier & funnier"; and thanking him for his own appreciation ("...How very kind of you to write! A spontaneous expression of appreciation like that, really does cheer up someone like me who feels increasingly out of date. There is a lot more of the long narrative piece about Cornwall but it is too intimate to be published..."), while asking to be spared the task of reviewing the plays of [Waugh's friend] Terence Greenidge ("...He sends me letters and rings me up pleading for a review, and the truth is they are completely unreadable to me..."); the series comprising five autograph letters, a set of autograph notes and an autograph postcard and five typed, or partly typed, letters; variously signed ("Lionel Edward M.W.S.", "Seán o'b" etc.); plus typescript of some unsolicited poems sent to Betjeman and forwarded to Violet, some 20 pages, 4to and 8vo, Westmeath, London and elsewhere, 1937-1968

Footnotes

ʻTHE GLOOM OF ITS FINAL CHAPTERS I FOUND VERY CONGENIAL' – John Betjeman to Anthony Powell and his wife. Among the letters is a group to Lady Violet supporting her successful campaign to prevent the removal of fittings from George Gilbert Scott's Church of the Holy Trinity at Chantry, displaying not only his considerable architectural knowledge (demonstrated by his illustrated notes on the disputed fittings) but also his expertise in the procedural minutiae necessary for such campaigning.

Additional information

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