![SASSOON, Siegfried (1886-1967). Autograph manuscript, The English Spirit, and two autograph letters signed to Miss [Viola] Garvin, Heytesbury House, Wiltshire, 23 November 1939 and 23 May 1940, with annotations in pencil and pink ink by Garvin, together 3 pages, 8vo (one page torn across with remnants of sellotape).](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2006/CSK/2006_CSK_04074_0222_000(010057).jpg?w=1)
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SASSOON, Siegfried (1886-1967). Autograph manuscript, The English Spirit, and two autograph letters signed to Miss [Viola] Garvin, Heytesbury House, Wiltshire, 23 November 1939 and 23 May 1940, with annotations in pencil and pink ink by Garvin, together 3 pages, 8vo (one page torn across with remnants of sellotape).
'These are the first words I have written about the war, & they are my personal affirmation of faith in the English Spirit. As such -- (my pacifism being so widely known) they have a special significance for those who have ears to hear.' Sassoon thanks Viola Garvin, the literary editor of The Observer (1926 to 1942), for a 'graceful reference' to his privately printed poems, and has copied a poem out for her readers (not present), but in his second letter berates the publication of The English Spirit -- 'if you read my poem aloud slowly & with the right emphasis, it is, surely, solidly written verse! Your printers have made it look like nothing at all.'
(3)
'These are the first words I have written about the war, & they are my personal affirmation of faith in the English Spirit. As such -- (my pacifism being so widely known) they have a special significance for those who have ears to hear.' Sassoon thanks Viola Garvin, the literary editor of The Observer (1926 to 1942), for a 'graceful reference' to his privately printed poems, and has copied a poem out for her readers (not present), but in his second letter berates the publication of The English Spirit -- 'if you read my poem aloud slowly & with the right emphasis, it is, surely, solidly written verse! Your printers have made it look like nothing at all.'
(3)
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