現場拍賣 8761Autograph Letters and Printed Books,
拍品 123

DAME EDITH SITWELL (1887-1964)

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GBP 329

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DAME EDITH SITWELL (1887-1964)
Autograph letter, signed 'Yours affectionately, Edith', from Castello di Montegufoni, 30 October 1958, 3pp, 8°, to Jean Le Roy, an informal letter enclosing proofs of the two poems dedicated to her to be published in The Month and enquiring about an article for the New York Times, 'I had wanted to write about Roy for them...he has been so terribly badly treated in England, owing to a cabal against him. He was a very great poet...a most noble and chivalrous character. Of course he ought not to have slapped Stephen...Grigson richly deserved being slapped, and whilst Roy lived I, subsequently, had peace' (creased on folds and top left corner).
With the galley proof of Two Poems by Edith Sitwell; The Outcasts and The War Orphans, signed and inscribed in ink 'To Jean with love from Edith' at the head, with autograph amendment to one line of The War Orphans (creased on folds).
SITWELL, Edith. The Outcasts, London: 1962. 8°, original pictorial cloth, dust-jacket with design by Victor Reinganum (edges slightly rubbed). FIRST EDITION. PRESENTATION COPY, the front free endpaper inscribed 'For my dear Jean with the dedication of "The Outcasts" and with love and deep gratitude from Edith'.
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專家說明

Jean Le Roy was Edith Sitwell's literary agent in the magazine department of Pearn, Pollinger and Higham. Edith Sitwell, writing from her brother Osbert's castle near Florence, mentions an incident which occurred nine years earlier in April 1949. Accounts vary but it would appear that, after months of battle in print over Edith's literary reputation between the poet Roy Campbell and Geoffrey Grigson in the Poetry Review, the situation finally came to a head with a confrontation at the BBC. Edith insists that Campbell gave Grigson 'a couple of good ones' ignoring his cries for mercy, but she highly exaggerated the incident and it is unlikely they came to blows. What is evident is that Campbell did assault Stephen Spender at a poetry reading that same day, again supposedly in defence of Edith's work. The incident obviously preoccupied Edith for she mentions it in her letters many years after the event, elaborating the story each time and glorying in the fact that Campbell acted as her champion. She was probably reminded of the incident after his sudden death in a car crash in 1957, which shocked her deeply.