[Stella Cobden-Sanderson, author.] Four Autograph Letters Signed and one Autograph Card Signed to Anglo-Irish poet Sylvia Lynd, with topics including a miscarriage by Lynd and evacuation from Cannes Harbour (with reference to Somerset Maugham).

The letters total 10pp., 12mo and 8vo. The three items in good condition, lightly-aged. ONE: ALS. The Taby Cat, West Grinstead; 17 Jan. [1918]. First 2pp only. In envelope postmarked 18 Jan. 1918. TWO: ALS. 23 Hertford Street, London, on cancelled letterhead of the Forum Club, 6 Grosvenor Place, Hyde Park Corner; 23 Aug. [1921 or 1922]. A sensitive letter of condolence on one of SL's miscarriages, signed 'Your devoted Stella'. Docketed by Lynd's daughter Maire Gaister: 'Probably in 1921 or 1922 after a still-born baby. S. L. had 3 disasters & was full of these negative theories later on, when this became fashionable. But I, her second baby, though delicate, survived & became the strongest member of the family. | M. G.' THREE: ALS. Long Crendon, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire; 15 July [1940]. Describing her evacuation from Cannes harbour: 'I am always asked whether I was on Somerset Maugham's boat so now I say at once, "Ever heard of Somerset Maugham's boat? Well, I was on the other one!" And it was ours that had all the adventures.' FOUR: ALS. Thornton, Long Crendon, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, 27 December 1944. 'At the moment there seems no chance of people returning to France who merely want to go home & if one goes out to do relief work one has to be prepared to go anywhere. I am anxious only to [d]o this in the South so that I can live in my own house'. She describes the death of a 'young French friend': 'Hélène was arrested & beaten but gave no information. Her mother was then arrested & put in a cell under the torture room & all day could hear her daughter being questioned & giving no answers & then screams of pain - Eventually the mother was taken into the torture room & saw her daughter naked in front of 10 Gestapo men being branded all over her body, limbs & face with hot irons. They tried to make the mother sign a document incriminating others & when she refused hit her several times in the face knocking out two teeth.' FIVE: ACS. Postmarked from Nice [France], 25 November 1932.