EMANUEL

1p., folio. In fair condition, aged and worn, with two punch holes at head. The letter begins by drawing the recipient's attention to an 'enclosed statement relating to Emanuel Hospital. | The principals involved are of great public interest and apply to every educational endowment throughout the kingdom | They involve: - | The confiscation of property | The arbitrary removal of Governors against whom no complaint is alleged. | Entire disregard of the charter of foundation | The absolute prohibition of the gratuitous education of the poor except as the result of competitive examination'.

1p., 4to. He thanks Stanford for sending 'the carbon' of his 'warm review' of Litvinoff's novel ('A Death out of Season'). He missed the article and the note Stanford wrote 'about my autobiographical sequence' in the Scotsman, but is now iinterested to see from the review that Stanford is 'nursing the idea of a 'Forties memoir. Amazingly, few of us have written about the decade. I shall be getting around to it one day also, I hope.

2pp., folio. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Castellani, who had accompanied the Italian royal family into exile in Portugal in 1946, is responding to two letters from Bilainkin, loyally attempting to conceal the unhappy state of relations between the royal couple ('We were never happy', the Queen declared after her husband's death; and there were rumours of homosexual affairs on the King's part).

8vo, iv + 38 + [ii] pp. Strangely paginated, the leaves in fact numbering 28. Advertisements front and rear. Bifolium advertisement for the 'World Wide Atlas' tipped in at end. In original printed wraps with strikingly-modern illustration by Edgar Wilson on front, and full-page advertisement for Carl Hentschel & Co, photo-engravers on back, featuring an attractive Arts and Crafts design. Internally clean, but with the leaves loosening, in wraps discoloured with age and chipped at spine (but with the text and illustration clear and entire).

Dimensions of card roughly 8.5 x 11 cm. Good, with slight creasing. Twenty lines of text. Congratulating Hammerton on his appointment as editor of the 'London Magazine'.

American diplomat and author (1817-1911), editor of Benjamin Franklin's works. All three items are very good on paper discoloured with age, though all with small punch holes for binding in upper corners, resulting to loss to six words of text. All three signed 'John Bigelow'. The second letter represents an important exposition of Bigelow's religious position at the very end of his life. LETTER ONE (14 March 1911, 21 Gramercy Park, two pages, octavo): In response to his correspondent's 'Syrenic appeal' he is sending a cheque for $25, 'at the rate of $5 for the next five years'.

English humorist (1869-1915), a long-time contributor to 'Punch' magazine. One page, 12mo. Good on somewhat discoloured paper. Reads 'Dear Miss Manook. | No, of course I was not annoyed. I am sorry I have not a copy of any book of mine by me, and I have not time today to write one for you.' Signed 'Walter Emanuel'.