[Hannen Swaffer and Walter Macqueen-Pope.] Collection relating to an abortive collaborative attempt at a 'biography' of Swaffer for Odhams Press, with drafts of chapters (with anecdotes on Churchill, H. G. Wells, Lloyd George) and original letters.

Descripción

In very good condition, on aged paper, in a brown card folder. The material in this collection relates to a book that was never published, and included here are copies of two typed letters from WMP to HS, casting light on the nature of this doomed collaborative project. In WMP's first letter, dated 26 July 1955, he writes to 'Dear Swaff' to 'finalise the manner in which your book is to be written'. Presaging future problems he urges him: 'I do entreat you to remember the fact that a book is different to a series of paragraphs. It must have cohesion. [.] I don't mind at all whether my name appears or not. That is really of no consequence to me. But I want to see YOU set forth properly and clearly, frankly and concisely, so that your full genius can be appreciated. | If you would rather make it a species of autobiography with successions of stories linked by comments by me, I do not mind at all - so long as we understand the method to be used. But those stories must be properly placed.' He concludes by urging HS to 'Think all this over - and when once we can agree on a workable form, we shall get a book of which we can both be proud.' The second letter (also 2pp., 4to) is undated, but clearly indicates that the project has hit the buffers: '[.] it was always my intention that you should speak for yourself on the subject of Northcliffe and also Beaverbrook [.] If the Northcliffe story goes in as you have given it to me [.] the whole structure of the book falls to the ground. I don't suppose you have read what I have already written, or you would have noticed this. [.] So far as I can see you want me simply to compile stories and perhaps occasionally comment thereon. I don't know if I can do that. I shall have to consider it. I am not one for blowing my own trumpet and I am never obstructive, but I happen to have a small reputation of my own as an author - I have written fourteen books which have all been successful save one [.] I really do know something of how successful books should be constructed. [.] It is a very different thing to writing articles [.]'. (An indication of WMP's method is given by Item Seventeen below, where he writes: 'Tell Popie to describe how I used to hide at the back of the theatre. Hated being so much the object of attention. It was terrible. I loathed it. I don't like being pointed out. You miss it, though, when you are not signing autographs. Bloody nonsense. But if everyone stopped . . .') The more substantial items in the collection number as follows: ONE: Untitled typescript [by HS], largely devoted to Winston Churchill. 14pp., 4to. HS's authorship is made clear on p.8, where typed references to 'I' are amended in pencil to 'Swaffer' and 'he'. The chapter discusses: an occasion on which 'Winston invited Swaffer to join his luncheon table, at which his son Randolph and Professor Lindeman, afterwards Lord Cherwell, were among the party' ('"Ah, when I was a Liberal," replied Winston, "we used to do things. We were not like you Socialists."'); Churchill's meeting with Eddie Cantor; HS's meeting with Churchill and Lloyd George in Marrakesh in 1935; and the results an anti-Churchill's speech by HS at the General Election of 1945. At a meeting 'in the Pinafore Room at the Savoy, at which a successor to Churchill was to be demanded', H. G. Wells, 'seated in a corner, created a sensation when he walked over to the table beside which Swaffer had a chair. [.] "How dare you talk about racial quality or inequality?" demanded Wells. "The only two Englishmen in this room are Swaffer and myself. We both come from Kent. The rest of you are a lot of bastards."' HS encounters Lloyd George while he is writing the 'terrible chapter' of his war memoirs, 'in which he indicted Kitchener and Haig': '"They cannot deny one word I have said," began L.G., reading from the chapter. "I am an old solicitor and so I always keep the documents, and as I am the only man who was a Cabinet Minister all through the war, I am the only on.

N° de ref. del artículo 14400

Contactar al vendedor

Denunciar este artículo

Detalles bibliográficos

Título

[Hannen Swaffer and Walter Macqueen-Pope.] Collection relating to an abortive collaborative attempt at a 'biography' of Swaffer for Odhams Press, with drafts of chapters (with anecdotes on Churchill, H. G. Wells, Lloyd George) and original letters.

Editor

London:

Fecha de publicación

1955

Encuadernación

No Binding

Estado

Fair

Firmado

Signed by Author(s)