Details
DOWSON, ERNEST. Autograph letter signed to his good friend Charles Sayle, [London] "15 Bristol Gardens, W.," n.d. [?January or February 1893] 2 pages, 8vo, slight fold tear, remnants of mounting on verso.
"I am intending to send in an application for the post of librarian & secretary of a Free Public Library...in South London. Would you mind, if you think you can say any good of me, letting me have a testimonial? I shall be immensely obliged, if you can, as I fancy your titular dignities, properly set forth, & your connection with one & more of our 'seats of learning' should carry weight with the worthy burgesses of Newington who give this appointment..." Nothing came of this (despite Sayle's excellent recommendation) and other efforts by Dowson to find steady employment. "After the death of his father [in 1894], he was unwilling to apply to any of his friends for recommendations. His pride, made almost tragic by the tragic events in his house, kept him from seeking any sort of favor" -- Mark Longaker, Ernest Dowson (1944), p. 163. Published in Letters, no. 234. Letters of this tragic poet of the Nineties are rare.
"I am intending to send in an application for the post of librarian & secretary of a Free Public Library...in South London. Would you mind, if you think you can say any good of me, letting me have a testimonial? I shall be immensely obliged, if you can, as I fancy your titular dignities, properly set forth, & your connection with one & more of our 'seats of learning' should carry weight with the worthy burgesses of Newington who give this appointment..." Nothing came of this (despite Sayle's excellent recommendation) and other efforts by Dowson to find steady employment. "After the death of his father [in 1894], he was unwilling to apply to any of his friends for recommendations. His pride, made almost tragic by the tragic events in his house, kept him from seeking any sort of favor" -- Mark Longaker, Ernest Dowson (1944), p. 163. Published in Letters, no. 234. Letters of this tragic poet of the Nineties are rare.