Three Typed Letters Signed "J.B. Priestley" and "J.B.P.", to Robert Lynd, essayist.

3 TLsS, 6pp., 8vo and 12mo. First, on letterhead of Wood Close, Chinnor Hill, Oxon; 30 January 1925. His wife 'had not had a turn for the worse at the time of the Lamb dinner, as was rumoured.' Thanks RL for his advice regarding osteopathy. Asks if RL has 'returned the contract (for my series)' to his agent. 'I am still looking for a man to do either Reading or Talking (the last my subject, but I am willing to swop [sic]) for the first six. [...] So many people, like C.E. Montague, say they hate reading and only want to do some hobby of their own, mountaineering and the like.' Second, on letterhead of College House, Church Hanborough, Oxon; 7 October 1927. 'Do books get worse or is it that one becomes more fastidious? [...] At the moment I am reading Trollope all over again. I am also, among other things trying to write a book on English Humour for Squire's new series. It's dreary work. I simply don't want to write a book about English or any other humour, and now curse the day I promised to. On the other hand, the collaboration with Walpole - in a novel in letters called FARTHING HALL - is great fun. He's one character and I'm another - they are two men friends - and we simply write the thing by exchanging letters. We have a plot, of course, but we take it easy, just keep pushing the story on a little and then say whatever comes into our heads. We began it together, up at his place near Keswick, and between us wrote 19000 words in a week, besides going on walks, yarning over drinks, paying visits, and what not. And I've just corrected (or pretended to correct) the proofs of my 6d history of the English Novel for Benns, a jolly little job of work. I hear these things are selling very well, so that perhaps I shall be able to say that one book of mine has sold 100,000 or whatever it is. | [...] I hear they're cutting down your reviewing space on the Daily News. This is a great mistake. [...]' Third, on College House letterhead; 30 November 1927. 'I've just finished the Goldfish and enjoyed it, bones, fins, tail and all. Cynthia going to church is my favourite, though some of the others are nearly as good. I love the Udes. One thing, though - I miss the fine eloquent passages you used to give us in the early books of essays, the poetical treatment of a theme. The present essays are just as good of their kind, but they are too much in one key, I think; the texture throughout the book is too even. Has anybody else said this?'