Autograph Letter Signed ('John') from John Carveth Wells [Grant Carveth Wells?] to 'Juan', on letterhead with caricatured portrait, thanking him for the loan of his 'Soho scrapbooks' and referring to 'Hymie Berg'.

12mo, 2 pp. 25 lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with thin neat strip from mount along left-hand margin on reverse. The letterhead, printed in brown, is headed 'JOHN CARVETH WELLS, F.R.G.S.' and features a small caricature portrait of Wells, apparently seated in a pram, reading from a book. Beneath his name is printed 'Poems, Short Stories, Articles, Lyrics and Music. | Travelogues and Talks. Hand-made Jewellery. | Colour Linocuts. Radio Talks, Acting, Writing.' The author of this letter published an autobiography, 'My Candle at Both Ends', in 1944. It is unclear whether he is also the 'Grant Carveth Wells' (also F.R.G.S.) whose death was announced in The Times, 18 February 1957. The 'gift of paper' will be 'most useful', although he does 'all my MSS. writing in ordinary school exercise books'. His correspondent's 'Soho scrapbooks' will be 'invaluable to me', presumably in the writing of the autobiography. He hopes to be in London for the winter, and is 'astonished to hear' of Hymie Berg's 'blossoming forth'. He apologises for the late response, but 'up here [in Blackpool], now the season has begun, I am working up to 11 or 12 at night each day & can only answer letters about once a week'.