Every day Sophie Dupre presents two items from her large stock of signed photographs, autograph letters, autographs for sale, royal memoralbilia and antiquarian manuscripts.
The photographs are presented with the catalogue descriptions.
On this day... see what happened on your special day
December 18
ON THIS DAY
On this day in 1959 Dorothy L Sayers died at the age of 66. She was a renowned English crime writer, poet, playwright, essayist, translator, and Christian humanist.
In 1902 the British parliament passed the Education Act, which has come to be regarded as the most important legislation of Arthur Balfour's government.
SAYERS (Dorothy L., 1893-1957, Detective Novelist, Creator of ‘Lord Peter Wimsey’)
Fine long Autograph letter signed to Margaret apologising for not having replied before and saying that she is “afraid I can’t do more than nibble at the large questions you open up. I’m afraid there is no rule of thumb for knowing good poetry, any more than there is for knowing good people. The only practical way to get there is to read what the judgement of able critics & the process of time have shown to be good, & then judge unknown authors and books by a standard of comparison. Theoretically, I suppose, one might say that if a work stimulates the imagination & emotions without doing violence to the intellect, it is good ... if it deals with universal themes, as distinct from merely topical subjects, it will stand the test of time - but that is rather a vague standard to apply. ...”, 2 sides 4to., 44 Mecklenburgh Square, WC1, 11th April 1921
38684
BALFOUR (Arthur James, 1848-1930, Prime Minister 1902-1905, Earl)
Fine letter signed to William Austen-Leigh about the death of their friend Spencer Lytttleton (1847-1913, civil servant and private secretary to William Gladstone during three of his terms as Prime Minister) he says “Spencer’s death is indeed for you and me a great break with the past, for our common friendship runs quite back, without a break to my first arrival in Cambridge 47 years ago. When we reach our age we must expect, until we go ourselves, to see our friends falling around us ... the gaps made in our ranks during the last two years have been exceptionally disastrous ...”, 4 sides 8vo., 12th December 1913
38025
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