DRIBERG

ONE (Elliott's letter): 3pp., 12mo. 34 lines. Bifolium. In good condition, on aged paper, loosely attached to the title-leaf of the book by a small piece of gummed paper. The letter begins: 'My dear Driberg | I ought to have acknowledged your letter sooner, but I only received it on my return from abroad, and since then I have been busy struggling with the arears which always accrue during absence.' He thanks him for sending his 'son's little volume', which he has read 'with much interest & congratulate him on the neat & modest appearance he has made in print'.

6pp., 4to. Paginated 1-7, with page 6 missing, and a strip at the bottom of page 5 torn away, resulting in the loss of five lines of text. The letter ends 'Our garden is coming along too slowly. | All best salaams,'. It lacks a signature, but comes from the Driberg papers, and it is presumably Driberg who removed what was probably part of the text which dealt with personal matters.

8pp., 4to. On eight leaves pinned together. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper, with rust staining from pin. Apparently unpublished. Typed at head of first page: 'From J. H. Driberg, 19, Dryden Chambers, W.1.', above which, in manuscript: 'NL. N. 10 pt Miscellany'. Driberg is clearly the author: 'Anyanga' is a surname common in the area of Kenya in which he was based as a colonial offical. The first paragraph gives an indication of the tone of the piece: 'The War left me with one fragrant memory. Her name was Yvonne Beaubouchais, and the date was 1915.

1p., 4to. Fifteen lines. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. The recipient is beyond doubt: the two men were friends with shared interests, and among the Driberg papers are letters from Hamilton signed 'Gérard'). Driberg is delighted to hear that Hamilton is feeling better: 'Would you be allowed to come over to Bradwell to lunch with me? If so, I might manage next Saturday. I could call with the car. Drop me a line at the House of Commons; [last four words underlined] that is the best address'.

The nine large prints are in good condition, lightly-aged with slight wear to corners. The smaller print is lightly-creased. In worn blue faux-leather album, with large facsimile signature of 'Lenare' on cover in gilt, with the address 'Portraiture | 28, GEORGE STREET | HANOVER SQUARE | LONDON, W.1.' ONE to FOUR. A series of four head-and-shoulders portraits of Driberg, each signed in pencil by Maurice Beck, and with the stamp on the reverse: 'Photograph by | Maurice Beck | F.R.P.S.' Each on a piece of 37 x 29.5 cm.

Black and white portrait of Driberg from the waist up, by Converse Studios Inc., New York. In good condition, in lightly-worn printed card folder, 35 x 25.5 cm. The image is mounted behind a 23.5 x 18 cm windowpane. Driberg, in his early thirties, in a double-breasted pin-striped suit, white shirt, and tie, faces the camera with hands in pockets. From Driberg's own papers.

Valuation: 29pp., 4to, in a brown folder bound with green ribbon. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. With a few manuscript additions. The title reads: 'T. DRIBERG, ESQ., 601 MOUNTJOY HOUSE, BARBICAN, LONDON, E.C.2. | VALUATIONS FOR INSURANCE | CHRISTIE, MANSON & WOODS.

2pp., landscape 12mo. In good condition, with minor water stain. He begs Driberg's pardon for having to 'break my engagement to play Bridge with you on Saturday evening - though it seems very impolite when I accepted so long ago': 'The fact is that the Master of Trinity has announced his intention of bringing the Belgian Ambassador to dine with me in Hall at Magdalene on that evening, and I regard this as so near to a Royal Command that I dare not evade it!' He hopes that '[w]ith this amount of notice' Driberg will be able to find a replacement, and asks for 'another chance later on'.

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with the slightest bloom to the blank reverse of the second leaf. Addressed to 'Dear Driberg'. He begins by reminding him that 'E. P.' had 'recommended me to the authorities of Cairo University for Hocart's vacant post [Arthur Maurice Hocart (1883-1939)], & had mentioned your name, at my request, as a referee'. With casual racism, he now remarks that 'the Gippies have acted promptly & E. P has just had a letter from a former colleague of his telling him that they are making inquiries with a view to offering me the post'.

1p., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. The letter begins: 'Dear Jack | It is a long time since we met - but perhaps that is my fault. If so, will you let bygones be bygones - and come over to Toppesfield some time?' She suggests a date, 'Or any Sunday lunch in the immediate future', stating that 'after July, all plans are "Hitler permitting"!' Driberg has noted his acceptance of the invitation up one margin. [Driberg was a Lecturer in Anthropology at Cambridge University from 1934 to 1942. His brother was the colourful Labour MP Tom Driberg.

1p., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Having been 'very comfortable' at Trinity College, Cambridge, as a guest of Bernard Thomas, Raglan thinks it will be 'very pleasant' to stay there again. He gives details of his proposed itinerary, makes suggestions regarding his motor-car, and accepts an invitation to 'dine in Hall'.

2pp., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper. She asks him if he can 'shed any light' on a book or paper (not named), 'or indicate what amount of interest it is likely to have': 'The author wrote it in 1904, added to it in 1907. Council [of the University of Cambridge] accepted it for publication in 1916. It was returned to the author, at his request, in 1928!' She could send it to Driberg, 'to look through, if you like (or rather if you are willing!)' A postscript regarding Sir E. E. Evans-Pritchard, emphatically underlined, reads: 'Is it true that E-P is married???'

1p., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper. He begins: 'My bookseller has sent me tonight "Island India at School" - Chicago University Press $2 [in fact 'Island India at School', E. R. Embree et al, 1934], and therefore, presumably, C.U.P. in this country.' He apologises for troubling Driberg unnecessarily: 'But yesterday they told me that they couldn't even trace it in Publishers' Catalogues.' Postscript reads: 'I hope I'm not robbing you of your proper style & title. I feel that it might be "Dr."

14pp., 12mo. In ruled notebook bound in black cloth. Titled 'Tom - School' at head of first page, with small section cut away from the front cover to make this visible. In fair condition on lightly-aged paper, with one slightly dogeared corner and light staining to blank leaves at the rear. Written while Driberg was between the ages of five and thirteen, and with the handwriting more untidy towards the end.

A significant item, written, as his biographer Roy Abrahams explains, by a man who was 'almost single-handedly responsible for keeping academic social anthropology, and one might add the place of African research within it, alive in the small Archaeology and Anthropology Department in Cambridge in those otherwise rather barren days of the 1930s'. 45pp., 12mo. In a ruled, stitched notebook without cover. Written in pencil on stained and aged paper. Some of the text is faded.

Both items good, on lightly-aged paper, with slight rust staining from paperclip. Typed Letter Signed ('Herbert Morrison') from Morrision to Driberg: 1p., 12mo. 17 lines of text. Concerning 'the difficulties which Private Donaldson says he is experiencing about his discharge from the Army because his certificate of naturalisation has gone astray', the Home Office 'asked the War Office to take every practicable step to recover the lost certificate', and they have written again to the War Office, 'to give them the information about the naturalisation of Private Donaldson'.

Book: [xii] + 95 pp., 8vo. In fair condition, in original green cloth and worn yellow dustwrapper. Inscribed on front free endpaper: 'For Tom Driberg | With Good Wishes | Robin Skelton | May 1960'. With review slip, on the reverse of which Driberg has written: 'Blake | Graves | Frost | Plomer'. Skelton's Letter: 2pp., 12mo. 20 lines. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Regarding the book he writes that he has 'added a note to the preface to the 2 Ballads of the Muse', which he hopes 'doesn't too much spoil the layout'. He thanks Driberg for his interest in his work.

1p., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Addressed to 'Dear Mr. Jack'. Having married Ioma Gladys Heaton-Nicholls the previous year, Evans-Pritchard had been commissioned in the Sudan defence force in 1940. (He would return to the Sudan-Ethiopian border to fight against the Italians alongside irregular troops of the Anuak.) In this letter Evans-Pritchard's mother writes to J. H. Driberg, at the time Lecturer in Anthropology at Cambridge University: 'Teddy & his wife were to leave England about the 3rd. for the East. I understood the sea voyage would be only about 4 or 5 days.

142pp., 4to. In a ruled notebook, bound in black cloth, with marbled endpapers. In fair condition, on aged paper, in worn binding with loss to a corner of a board. Starting at one end of the notebook is the diary of autograph entries, each dated and initialled by Mrs Driberg. In 1932 Mrs Driberg, a formidable Scottish widow in the last years of her life, has five hives (numbered 1 to 4, with a fifth observation hive), with a sixth hive (No. 5) added by 1934.

1p., 4to. Fair, on aged paper, with one small burn-hole to margin. Addressed to 'Mrs. T. Driberg, | Bradwell Lodge, | Bradwell juxta Mare, | nr. Southminster, | Essex.' He thanks her for receiving 'an African boy from Northern Rhodesia and some members of my family', and 'showing us the details of your charming house so unhesitatingly'. He discusses the 'astonishing contrast the house is to the landscape around it.

1p., 8vo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Van Thal was 'most distressed to read in the Daily Express this morning that you were no longer connected with that paper.' He thanks him 'for the pleasure that you have given me over a number of years of reading a first class column'. He hopes it will be 'discoverable as to where you are going to continue to write - or have politics put an end to a chapter?' In a postscript he states that he is at least 'able to console myself with Hansard!'

Having been expelled from the Communist Party in 1941, Driberg joined the Labour Party in 1945; he would be elected to the National Executive throughout 1949-72 and was chairman of the party in 1957-8. The collection is in fair condition, on lightly-aged paper, with occasional minor rust staining from paperclips. ONE: Autograph Notes by Driberg of 'Bradwell local information'. 12pp., 12mo, on a total of eight leaves of House of Commons notepaper.

3pp., 4to. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with slight smudging to outer margins of both leaves. Addressed to 'My dear Jack'. He is pleased to have heard from Driberg, but disappointed that there is 'no immediate chance' of seeing him, as he has not 'strayed from home for moons.

1p., 4to. 12 lines. Good, on lightly-aged paper. He was not able to reply to Driberg's letter sooner because he was arranging with the secretary of the Cambridge Historical Society to deliver a paper to be entitled 'Theories of the Causes of Wars'. He wonders whether Driberg's 'anthropologists' might not be able to 'join in the meeting - or possibly I might to talk [sic] to them on the following day'. He does not think he will be able to find time the following term. Ginsberg's paper 'The Causes of War' was published in 1939 in the Sociological Review.

2pp., 12mo. 28 lines. In fair condition, on aged high-acidity paper. Homburger begins by thanking Driberg for his 'papers' and expressing pleasure at their meeting. He encloses 'a list [not present] of feila words (just a few typical) and a draft of my paper not complete nor absolutely definite but which will shew you that I have pretty sound basis for my ideas as to the sénégalais nilotique.' 'Great difficulties', he considers, 'have arisen [...] from mixing anthropologie [sic] & linguistics.

All in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. The letters are dated 22, 24 and 25 December 1939 and 20 and 21 January 1940; the note is undated. The letters total 6pp., 4to, with an additional 1p., 4to, carrying a translation from Spanish; the note is on the back of a scrap of Asbach Uralt packaging. The first two letters are in English, the other letters and the note in French. One envelope is present, addressed to: 'M. Yvon Davis, Bradwell Lodge, Bradwell-on-Sea, nr.

A stylish and amusing 12mo card, with the cartoon printed in dark red and black on the front and the slug on the back. All printed. Tipped in inside the card is a bifolium, with 'BOOMPS-A-DAISY!' on the verso of the first leaf, and 'What is a BOOMP between friends?' and a short musical phrase at the head of the recto of the second leaf', with 'Peaceful New Year, | 1940 | from Gerald Hamilton | 91, Kinnerton Street | Belgrave Square, S.W 1.' beneath it.

1p., 4to. Fair, on aged paper with a slight bloom. Addressed to 'Dear Driberg'. He has intended to write for some time, and has finally traced Driberg's address 'on reading your letter in The Times this morning'. 'I dare say you know that I left Routledge's and established my own business on the basis of the Martin Secker list.' He invites Driberg to 'come in for a chat' the next time he is in London: 'I think it is high time a new book from you appeared and I should be glad to have it on this list.' Driberg does not appear to have taken Warburg up on his offer.

2pp., 12mo. Very good on blue paper, with letterhead printed in red. He begins: 'I must write to tell you how very much indeed I enjoyed the course at Cambridge and particularly your lectures.

Antoinette (Tony) Powell-Cotton was the daughter of Major Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton (1866-1940), explorer, naturalist, founder in 1896 of the Quex Museum (the Powell-Cotton collection), at Birchington, Kent. 3pp., 12mo. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with a couple of minor damp stains to the first leaf of two. She writes that her family have just spoken to Professor Herskovits [the American anthropologist Melville Jean Herskovits (1895-1963)], 'and he gave us a message that you would like to see our specimens from Angola'.