Autograph Letter Signed to Messrs Bumpus on the subject of abridged and 'retold' children's books.

8vo, 2 pp. 40 lines of text. Stamped and docketed by Bumpus. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper. A splendid diatribe. She is enclosing a cheque for £5 and asks for 'books to the value of thirty shillings to be placed to her account. 'The books written for by me some time ago have arrived; but I was greatly displeased to receive "abridged" editions of the two childrens' [sic] books ordered - "The Wide Wide Word" and "Queechy". When I asked for cheap copies to be sent, I naturally expected they would be complete, and from Ward, Lock, or Collins, or Blackie - not the totally illiterate Herbert Strang [...] it is clearly not the fault of the assistant who sent them - but is there no protection from publishers who "cut" or "re-tell" classics for children in disgraceful English with no warning to the unfortunate buyer of the book? [...] I speak of the publishers who print fairy Tales in mutilated form under the name of Hans Andersen, and who take it upon themselves to put pink and white rubbish in place of Tenniel's illustration - or even "re-tell" Lewis Carrol! [sic] can nothing be done? | it should be not only the dead who turn. [...]' Interestingly, Victor Purcell's entry in Who's Who does not name his wife, and none of the three obituary notices in The Times (6, 8 and 12 January 1965) even mentions that he was married.