CEDRIC

A short-lived periodical, of interest as a forerunner of the ISBN system: the Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature states that it ran from September 1895 to August 1898, and gives Armistead Cay as joint-editor. The eight numbers are as follows: Vol. 1 No. 2 (March 1896); Vol. 1 No. 7 (August 1896); Vol. 1 No. 8 (September 1896); Vol. 1 No. 9 (October 1896); Vol. 1 No. 11 (December 1896); Vol.1 No. 12 (January 1897); Vol. 2 No. 4 (May 1897); Vol. 2 No. 9 (October 1897). The eight 8vo pamphlets are stapled into printed wraps, and are uniform in design.

Typescript of 'The Balloon': landscape 8vo, 24 pp. Text clear and complete. On aged paper. With pencil emendations (including the deletion of a number of passages) on practically every page. Described by Cross as a 'radio composition' and a 'fantasy for broadcasting', 'The Balloon' presents an absurd take on T. S. Eliot's verse plays. It was transmitted on the Scottish Home Service of the BBC in 1946, with music by Cedric Thorpe Davie (1913-1983). There is no record of it having been published. The five typed letters total seven 4to pages. The autograph letter is landscape 12mo, 1 p.

On light-yellow page (roughly 11 x 14 cm) removed from autograph album. Four glue stains showing through from the reverse (not affecting the signatures), otherwise good. Reads 'Dora Stevens | Ethel Hobday | Marjorie Hayward | Cedric Sharpe'. Lightly docketed in pencil.

Both cards self-stamped. CARD ONE is very good and has printed on it a stamp of Queen Elizabeth II. Addressed to Powell and his wife, it does not appear to have gone through the mails. 'Most kind of you to write - we led a quick <?> in the car, & then a meeting in the afternoon. We <?>: Jill also, who we havent seen lately. | Many thanks | [signed] Adrian C. B.' CARD TWO is somewhat aged, with a stain and some wear on the address side. It reads 'I too have written to Kellogg's! | [signed] Adrian C Boult'.