Lot Essay
According to information provided by the vendor, Harry Clarke met Dr. Blackburn while recovering from an attack of Tuberculosis in Switzerland, and the two men struck up an instant friendship.
Details
CLARKE (HARRY) -- A collection of 4 long a.l.s. by Clarke to Dr. Howard Blackburn, dated Trianon Palace Hotel, Rue de Vaugirard, Paris, March 3rd, 1930; Hotel Regina, Rue Cassiou, Paris, March 16th and April 4th, 1930; and The Victoria, Davos-Platz, Switzerland, November 19th, 1930, discussing his progress in recovering from an attack of T.B., with details of his accomodation ('One large room with three windows opening onto a balcony & these windows are like the background of 'The Beggar's Opera'), and 'the journey to Basle & Brown silken whisky ... I will tell you nothing of that', antics in the hotel ('A. & B. are as ever wonderful - the former dances for me each morning in his pyjamas and overcoat - a perfect YELL'), his copy of 'Ulysses' ('If 'Ullyses' is not returned, or is returned full of currants, ham bones, hair, rusty corned beef cans & barrel hoops - let me know ... also let me know if the "Salome" portfolio has turned up - it may not be as rare as I thought & if it is, I think I know where one may be had at our price'), and reflecting on his fellow Irish writers ('Now about Flecker ... Yeats is ill at Rapallo but I shall write to his wife perhaps tomorrow ... Alan says he will write Shaw but thinks the old bogs won't pay any attention); and 2 books, comprising the portfolio 'Aubrey Beardsley's Illustrations to Salome' [see above], with 11 plates on Japanese vellum only (of 17), and a privately printed edition of Balzac's 'Physiology of Marriage.' (6)