Collection of 31 original aphorisms by Holbrook Jackson, on slips of paper made up from Typed Letters Signed and essays by American bookseller and journalist Montgomery Evans, on book collecting (Machen, Dunsany) and the transatlantic book trade.

The material in this collection is all typewritten, and originally formed part of 4to leaves. It is in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Holbrook Jackson cut it into 31 strips, each roughly 13 x 20.5 cm, and wrote an original aphorism on the blank reverse of each strip. (The 31 aphorisms include: 'Self-abuse is England's public vice.' 'Sentimentalism is indecent exposure of the emotions.' 'Vulgarity is a line of least resistance.' 'The nemesis of curiosity is satiety.' 'Jealousy is ridiculous - when it is not an aphrodisiac.' 'In a country where all were rich poverty would be a privilege.' 'Impotence is the father of resentment.' 'Nonsense survives where sense perishes.') 24 of the strips have been matched in pairs and repaired with archival tape, reforming the original twelve 4to leaves; the other seven strips remain unmatched. The collection now consists of three complete Typed Letters Signed from Montgomery Evans to Jackson (Items One to Three); three incomplete Typed Letters from Evans to Jackson (Items Four to Six); the full text of Evans's essay 'Unread Books' (Item Seven); the last three pages of Montgomery's four-page essay 'Compromises' (Item Eight); and the lower panel of a leaf from another essay (Item Nine). ONE: Place not stated. 22 June 1944 (on second page). 2pp., 4to. TWO: 421 Field Point Road, Greenwich, Conn., on letterhead of the Salmagundi Club, New York. Christmas 1944. 2pp., 4to. 'The day suggests London, or at least the London I knew, and the weather is very British; a very good imitation of a moderate fog restricts my view to the small estate of which I am monarch, and I cannot even see the water some 300 yards away. [...] I even listened to the King this morning, and was browsing thorugh Burke's book on Bloomsbury when I found a photograph I had mislaid of old Stulik with Jockey at the door of the Eiffel. John Strachey's painting from the Eiffel faces my desk, and I recall the ordinary but very pleasant routine of a walk to the Fitzroy where I would have to avoid offers of drink from the local milkman, Mrs. Cow who took shilling bets, the optician, and the retired constable, but accept one from plump old Kleinfeld.' He compares the American bar with the English pub, adding, 'I am reconciled to completing the drinking book as best I can, though I do wish I could return to London and Paris at least to discover what war has done to some of the places I knew. I gather from the radio that the Greek who took over at 1 Percy St has prospered, but I fear that the pubs and the England I knew will be as remote as Victorian England when I return.' THREE: Place not stated. 29 January 1948. 1p., 4to. 'I suppose I should send a card to Rota for the new book about T. J. Wise. Did you encounter him often? [...] Do you ever see my friends the Robinsons, or Rota? I wonder if my old friend Frank, who used to be at the Eiffel, is still with Kempinski. If I get back in time to see him, he might locate the guest book of Stulik's which was supposed to have been left with me. Aside from a nice drawing of Yeats by Dulac it has signatures and inscriptions of many interesting parties there. I have done nothing about the Yeats letters, as I want to pay for them before I start printing them. The mass of Jacobs letters in Greenwich are [sic] appalling, and will probably keep Penny busy for months mounting, after I have sorted them carefully. I wonder where Tommy Earp is; have you any idea what paper he may be writing for?' FOUR: "Thanage", Parkgate Crescent, Hadley Wood, Barnet, Hertfordshire. 22 December 1943. 1p., 4to; 1p., landscape 12mo (top half of second leaf only). The letter begins: 'Holbrook Jackson Esq. | Dear Mr. Jackson: | This is a monograph on the subject of Me' Three chapters and an 'envoi' follow. With tongue in cheek he describes how he became acquainted with Jackson, adding 'From then on I could not get away from Mr. Holbrook Jackson. He is familiar with my experiences in Philadelphia when I ran into Mr. Frederick Richardson - an amazing coincidence. He is familiar with my experience with a member of the Gomme family, to whom I am related by marriage, and who is a member of the New York literati, [...] Some months afterwards, when I was living in Philadelphia, this same Mr. Laurence Gomme approached me to approach Mr. Holbrook Jackson with the object of the latter making a lecture tour of the U.S.A. This did not come to fruition which was definitely America's loss.' FIVE: Place not stated. 9 January 1948. 2pp., landscape 12mo (top half of first page and bottom half of second page). 'Penny is going to take lessons in mounting letters, and once we move back to Greenwich I plan completing my Machen file, and starting on those on you Dunsany. After that will come the mass of Jacobs and Yeats correspondence. [...] Among the probable contents of our first catalogue will be the duplicate set of Dunsany which I bought entirely on spec from the Carnegie. Naturally it is not so complete as my own, recently enriched by one of thirty copies of The Fortress Unvanquishable Save by Sacnoth, and last week by Dunsany's translations from Horace which he had enriched with 2 ½ pages of inscription. For his sake and my own I hope the Atlantic takes the article on back of two of whose carbons I wrote you last. | Scribner's rare book man says he considers sending books to England for sale, as the prices there seem to be better. Of course Rota sends me anything he considers in my line, and I have found him a very dependable and understanding dealer.' SIX: On letterhead of the Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York. 6 December 1947. 1p., 12mo. Upper panel from first page of letter. SEVEN: The full text of the essay 'Unread Books' (3pp., 4to). 'Alphabetically Achmet Abdullah heads the list of such books in my own library. Captain Abdullah was the author of many unreal and widely read adventure stories, and of the legend that he was the son of Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia and an Afghan princess.' EIGHT: 3pp., 4to, numbered 2-4, all but the first page of a four-page essay on 'Compromises'. 'No one collected Conan Doyle when Vincent Starrett decided that Sherlock Holmes books had been neglected. [...] To collect all the editions of Hans Breitman alone would take not so much money as patience.' NINE: 1p., landscape 12mo. Lower panel from 4to leaf. 'Going to a football game in New Haven in 1938 (?) a stranger in the smoking car revealed himself as a collector of Machen. Alfred Goldsmith introduced me in 1944 to a new convert, Mr. Vodrey, of Canton, Ohio, who carries with him two loose-leaf books containing photostats of the Yale Library cards describing their superlative collection [...] Starrett introduced me to a new Machen collector by mail. [...] Machen, Holbrook Jackson, and Sidney Sime were for years recipients of American books which I thought they would like.'