THE PROPERTY OF COUNT GHISLAIN DE DIESBACH
[JULLIAN, Philippe (1919 - 1977)]. A collection of seventy-nine letters and postcards addressed to the French historian, art critic and painter Philippe Jullian by the writers Angus Wilson and William Plomer, including:
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[JULLIAN, Philippe (1919 - 1977)]. A collection of seventy-nine letters and postcards addressed to the French historian, art critic and painter Philippe Jullian by the writers Angus Wilson and William Plomer, including:
WILSON, Angus (1913 - 1991). Fourteen autograph letters signed, six autograph postcards signed and 2 typewritten letters signed to Philippe Jullian, Suffolk, British Museum Reading Room, Paris and n.p., 31 August 1949 - 15 December 1976, referring to his own works and in several letters to their joint work [For Whom the Cloche Tolls, 1953], 'I am very concerned about my own ability to rise to the social heights which your drawings deal with', proposing 'little essays' on 'Wells, Russia, Lady Snowden, middle class life, the bungalow ...' and on publishing matters generally, praising various works by Jullian; reporting the anger caused by his [Wilson's] describing Henry James as homosexual, and on the existence of letters to prove it, also on social matters and mutual friends, approximately 31 pages in autograph, mostly 8vo, and 3½ typewritten pages 4to; autograph envelopes. PLOMER, William (1903 - 1973, poet). Forty-eight autograph letters signed and nine autograph picture postcards signed to Philippe Jullian, London and Sussex, 6 February 1946 - 21 August 1973, writing chattily of his social life and the London literary scene, in one letter 'I thought of you yesterday at an enormous teaparty given by Edith Sitwell - such a splendid raggle taggle of marchionesses & poets, dear friends & malicious gossips'; mentioning Elizabeth Bowen, and Angus Wilson's work [The Wrong Set], which 'frightened me & made me feel very old fashioned & sentimental but there was no mistaking the brilliance'; referring to the libretto he is writing for Benjamin Britten's Gloriana, his work for the BBC; also to Jullian's works on D'Annunzio, and Oscar Wilde, recalling his impressions of 'Bosie' [Lord Alfred Douglas], and on Wilde, 'Yes, Firbankian is just the word for Oscar's flirtation with Rome. De Profundis is certainly self pitying and gigantically self-centred ... Could a considerate man have treated his wife like that?'; referring dismissively to Somerset Maugham, and disclosing that he cannot read Henry James; in many of the letters commenting on Jullian's illustrations for various works, and praising his writing, ('I have made your Château Bonheur my livre de chevet'), and generally writing about his own life and mutual friends, approximately 145 pages, 8vo (2 letters slightly waterstained); autograph envelopes.
Philippe Jullian (1919 - 1977), historian, art critic and painter, was the author of biographies of Oscar Wilde, d'Annunzio and Delacroix, as well as novels and acerbic criticisms of high society in the Fifties (My Lord, Cafe-Society, Apollon et Cie). He wrote satirical albums, including Le Cirque du Père Lachaise, Dictionnaire du Snobisme, Mémoires d'une bergère, and illustrated among other works an edition of A la recherche du temps perdu. While privately complaining of Angus Wilson's lack of aestheticism, he collaborated with him on For whom the cloche tolls, a scrapbook of the Twenties (Ghislain de Diesbach. Un esthète aux Enfers: Philippe Julian, Paris, 1993).
The novelist Angus Wilson was until 1955 Deputy Superintendent of the Reading Room of the British Museum. His literary career took off with the success of The Wrong Set (published 1949), a collection of short stories satirising pretentious people. In a long, entertaining and anecdotal letter to Ghislain de Diesbach (photocopy included with the lot) he describes his first meeting with Jullian and their friendship based on their love of literature, art and gossip. Jullian, in a published memoir, recalled visiting Wilson at the British Museum and called him the Zola of England (Cinq Croquis d'Angus Wilson, 1964).
William Plomer, the South African born writer and poet, moved to London in the 1930s, becoming a literary consultant to the publisher, Jonathan Cape. His Collected Poems were published in 1960 and 1973. He wrote the libretto of Benjamin Britten's opera, Gloriana, and was a prominent figure in post-war London literary circles.
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WILSON, Angus (1913 - 1991). Fourteen autograph letters signed, six autograph postcards signed and 2 typewritten letters signed to Philippe Jullian, Suffolk, British Museum Reading Room, Paris and n.p., 31 August 1949 - 15 December 1976, referring to his own works and in several letters to their joint work [For Whom the Cloche Tolls, 1953], 'I am very concerned about my own ability to rise to the social heights which your drawings deal with', proposing 'little essays' on 'Wells, Russia, Lady Snowden, middle class life, the bungalow ...' and on publishing matters generally, praising various works by Jullian; reporting the anger caused by his [Wilson's] describing Henry James as homosexual, and on the existence of letters to prove it, also on social matters and mutual friends, approximately 31 pages in autograph, mostly 8vo, and 3½ typewritten pages 4to; autograph envelopes. PLOMER, William (1903 - 1973, poet). Forty-eight autograph letters signed and nine autograph picture postcards signed to Philippe Jullian, London and Sussex, 6 February 1946 - 21 August 1973, writing chattily of his social life and the London literary scene, in one letter 'I thought of you yesterday at an enormous teaparty given by Edith Sitwell - such a splendid raggle taggle of marchionesses & poets, dear friends & malicious gossips'; mentioning Elizabeth Bowen, and Angus Wilson's work [The Wrong Set], which 'frightened me & made me feel very old fashioned & sentimental but there was no mistaking the brilliance'; referring to the libretto he is writing for Benjamin Britten's Gloriana, his work for the BBC; also to Jullian's works on D'Annunzio, and Oscar Wilde, recalling his impressions of 'Bosie' [Lord Alfred Douglas], and on Wilde, 'Yes, Firbankian is just the word for Oscar's flirtation with Rome. De Profundis is certainly self pitying and gigantically self-centred ... Could a considerate man have treated his wife like that?'; referring dismissively to Somerset Maugham, and disclosing that he cannot read Henry James; in many of the letters commenting on Jullian's illustrations for various works, and praising his writing, ('I have made your Château Bonheur my livre de chevet'), and generally writing about his own life and mutual friends, approximately 145 pages, 8vo (2 letters slightly waterstained); autograph envelopes.
Philippe Jullian (1919 - 1977), historian, art critic and painter, was the author of biographies of Oscar Wilde, d'Annunzio and Delacroix, as well as novels and acerbic criticisms of high society in the Fifties (My Lord, Cafe-Society, Apollon et Cie). He wrote satirical albums, including Le Cirque du Père Lachaise, Dictionnaire du Snobisme, Mémoires d'une bergère, and illustrated among other works an edition of A la recherche du temps perdu. While privately complaining of Angus Wilson's lack of aestheticism, he collaborated with him on For whom the cloche tolls, a scrapbook of the Twenties (Ghislain de Diesbach. Un esthète aux Enfers: Philippe Julian, Paris, 1993).
The novelist Angus Wilson was until 1955 Deputy Superintendent of the Reading Room of the British Museum. His literary career took off with the success of The Wrong Set (published 1949), a collection of short stories satirising pretentious people. In a long, entertaining and anecdotal letter to Ghislain de Diesbach (photocopy included with the lot) he describes his first meeting with Jullian and their friendship based on their love of literature, art and gossip. Jullian, in a published memoir, recalled visiting Wilson at the British Museum and called him the Zola of England (Cinq Croquis d'Angus Wilson, 1964).
William Plomer, the South African born writer and poet, moved to London in the 1930s, becoming a literary consultant to the publisher, Jonathan Cape. His Collected Poems were published in 1960 and 1973. He wrote the libretto of Benjamin Britten's opera, Gloriana, and was a prominent figure in post-war London literary circles.
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