MASEFIELD

Both items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. ONE: 2pp., 12mo. 3 July 1935. With envelope addressed to Lynd at 5 Keats Grove, Hampstead. 'I had a wonderful description of the Yeats dinner on 27th. Yeats very simple & intimate in his response to the toast, Masefield very fine, a generous recognition of Yeats as his master, called our dear W. B. the greatest living poet. Gogarty horrid making vulgar jokes & laughing with Ld. Semphill during Frances Hacketts speech'. TWO: 1p., 8vo. Undated. Urging the Lynds to 'stay on over […] I have a few funny folks till Monday, otherwise all peaceful'.

[10] + 244 + [2]pp., 8vo, consisting of sixteen loose signatures, unstitched and unbound, wrapped in a piece of green paper on which is written in pencil 'Group 2 | Special'. Very good, on lightly-aged 'Holbein' wove paper. Each signature with uncut edges, and with only the first four of the eight leaves opened.

'The Story of San Michele' is one of the most popular works of the twentieth century, and this delightful correspondence bears ample testimony to the extraordinary allure of its author. The eight letters are entirely legible, in fair condition on aged paper. They total 3 pp in folio, and 8 pp in 4to. The sequence is tentative, none of the letters giving the year. The numerous errors, in large part due to Munthe's growing blindness, are largely unnoticed in the following transcripts. Letter One (2 pp, 4to). 'Rome Villa Svezia Via Aldrovandi 27 Feb 8 [1930]'.

4to, 24 pp. With four pages of illustrations (by J. B. Yeats, Charles Shannon, Sean O'Sullivan, Max Beerbohm and Edmund Dulac). Stapled. In original grey printed wraps. Aged and dog-eared, in worn wraps. The introduction, by 'L. R.', explains that 'THE ARROW is an occasional, a very occasional, publication by the Abbey Theatre. Only four numbers of it have appeared, two in 1906, one in 1907, 1908 and 1909.' Essays by John Masefield ('William Butler Yeats'), F. R.

Irish actor (1916-2001). 2 pages, 8vo. In good condition though creased along one edge. Accompanying this item are a typescript (1 page, 8vo, in good condition, annotated in ink) headed 'MASEFIELD READINGS', listing 13 items alternatively allocated to 'O'Conor' and 'Day Lewis', and two typewritten slips of paper listing some of the officers of the Royal Society of Literature, one of which has corrected details of the Don Carlos Coloma Memorial Lecture on the reverse. In the letter O'Conor complains that [Masefield's Collected Poems 'seem riddled with misprints'.

Marie Carmichael Stopes (1880-1958), British paleobotanist and eugenicist, influential advocate of birth control. Clean neat inscription on recto of front free endpaper reads 'Marie C. Stopes | Norbury Park | 1935'. The volume is in good condition, in a grubby dustwrapper worn at the head and tail of the spine. Pages 324-5 and 339 have been marked up in soft pencil.