PEAKE (Mervyn, 1911-1968, Writer, Artist, Poet and Illustrator)

Fine Autograph Letter Signed with his intimate nickname "Muffin" to his old friend [Helene] Lanie Bruce "Lanie dear" starting "you must think me very dreadful! I have been delighted & thrilled to know you are in England & have meant to write - but knew I'd see you & procrastinated. But how lovely to see you! I'm in town now - at 3 Trafalgar Studios & it was lovely getting your letter here ... Darling, I'll ring you ... and we'll fix when we can meet. Do you arrive from Devon at Victoria (what a sentence). If so - shall I meet you for a few minutes before you have to catch a train to Mayfield or are you going by car. Lots of the original love to you, darling ...", with a postscript that they "were awfully sorry about your little boy & that you weren't able to come to Sark. Give him my love. I hope he's better ...", 2 sides 8vo., 3 Trafalgar Studios, Chelsea, no date but circa

Peake returned from Sark in 1936 and was commissioned to design the sets and costumes for The Insect Play and his work was acclaimed in The Sunday Times. He also began teaching life drawing at Westminster School of Art where he met the painter Maeve GILMORE (1917-1983, Painter, Sculptor and Writer) whom he married in 1937. They had three children, Sebastian (1940–2012), Fabian (b. 1942), and Clare (b. 1949). He worked at Trafalgar Studios for some years in the 1940s.
Letters from Helene Bruce to both Mervyn and Maeve Peake can be found in the Mervyn Peake archive at the British Library
He is best known for what are usually referred to as the Gormenghast books. The three works were part of what Peake conceived as a lengthy cycle, the completion of which was prevented by his death. They are sometimes compared to the work of his older contemporary J. R. R. Tolkien, but Peake's surreal fiction was influenced by his early love for Charles Dickens and Robert Louis Stevenson rather than Tolkien's studies of mythology and philology.
Letters from Peake are uncommon as he died at the age of 67 after suffering from dementia for the last years of his life.

Item Date:  1946

Stock No:  40690      £650

             Add to Wish List     Order/Enquire