Five Typed Letters Signed and one Autograph Note Signed ('Gerald', 'Gérard', 'G. H.') from the arms dealer and fraudster Gerald Hamilton (model for Christopher Isherwood's 'Mr Norris') to Yvon Davis [pseudonym of Tom Driberg?] of Bradwell Lodge.

Descripción

All in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. The letters are dated 22, 24 and 25 December 1939 and 20 and 21 January 1940; the note is undated. The letters total 6pp., 4to, with an additional 1p., 4to, carrying a translation from Spanish; the note is on the back of a scrap of Asbach Uralt packaging. The first two letters are in English, the other letters and the note in French. One envelope is present, addressed to: 'M. Yvon Davis, Bradwell Lodge, Bradwell-on-Sea, nr. Southminster, Essex.' The identity of the addressee is unclear, but around the time of writing Bradwell Lodge had been acquired by the gossip columnist and future Labour MP Tom Driberg, from the papers of whose brother the anthropologist J. H. Driberg these items derive. Considering the characters of Driberg and Hamilton there is a possibility that the letters are some form of coded communication, either political or sexual (the second letter ends: 'I am having an unexpectedly gay time'). Subjects include the difficulty in sending Davis's Christmas cards to France and Belgium, and problems with 'mandats' for four individuals: Louis Prist; Mme Antoine Tastenoe and her husband, Jules Vanderveelen. Hamilton sends a packet of tobacco on Davis's behalf, receives a pullover for him, and provides a translation into French of a letter to Davis in Spanish from an unnamed 'amis'. In the last letter Hamilton reports that he has received 'beaucoup de courrier de Bruxelles', among which is a letter for Davis from Prist, regarding whom Hamilton writes: 'Il semble être devenu complètement fou, car il m'écrit: J'écris en même temps à Yvon non pour excuser mais pour lui dire ce que je pense de sa conduite vis à vis de moi. J'aime croire que Louis n'a pas écrit. Une lettre coute Frs 1.75 et il semble être sans un sou. [.] Au lieu d'être reconnaissant à toi pour le grand dérangement qu'il t'occasionne, il semble croire qu'il ya un complot pour le priver de ses sous. C'est un gamin et il faut l'excuser car il est hors de lui avec le froid et le misère etc.'. N° de ref. del artículo 12437

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