Autograph letters signed (4) : London and Wantage, to Siegfried Sassoon, 1952 Mar. 17, 1952 Apr. 19, 1955 May 6, and 1966 June 17.

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Autograph letters signed (4) : London and Wantage, to Siegfried Sassoon, 1952 Mar. 17, 1952 Apr. 19, 1955 May 6, and 1966 June 17.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/270870322

Thanking him for a presentation copy of Emblems of Experience and lavishly praising his later work: "I have now read through your poems twice, out loud to myself, which is the best test. The words roll out full of sound and depth like they do in my beloved Tennyson. And the melancholy in every poem of yours, I welcome so warmly. It's like the melancholy of Hood, that constant sense of Eternity"; commenting on individual poems, particularly "The Messenger," which evokes for him his own dying mother; saying that "poetry is looking up"; and supporting Sassoon's decision to publish his poems privately; with mention of Austin Dobson, Andrew Young, R.S. Thomas, and Sidney Maror, Wilde's and Alfred Taylor's friend [19 April 1952]. Sending a book of Andrew Young in a note addressed to "Dear and great poet [the word "great" underlined]" and headed "VOTES FOR WOMEN" [17 March 1952]. Accepting an invitation in a note addressed to "Dear and best of poets" [6 May 1955]. Advising him on recuperating from an operation ("Hospital life has a monastic order about it which I enjoy") and calling him "a masterly craftsman as well as so beautiful a poet" [17 June 1966].

4 items (10 p.) ; 20.8 cm. or smaller + with one envelope.

Pierpont Morgan Library.

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SNAC Resource ID: 7216908

Related Entities

There are 2 Entities related to this resource.

Sassoon, Siegfried, 1886-1967

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6s57k28 (person)

Poet and writer Siegfried Loraine Sassoon was born on 8 September 1886 at Weirleigh, near Matfield in Kent. His mother, Georgiana Theresa Thornycroft, was from a prominent family of sculptors and artists, while his father, Alfred Ezra Sassoon, came from a wealthy Jewish merchant family. His father left home when he was seven and died soon after, so Siegfried and his brothers, Michael and Hamo, were raised solely by their mother. Educated at Marlborough College (1902-4), Sassoon read law at Cl...

Betjeman, John, 1906-1984

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6q52ngz (person)

John Betjeman was a poet, journalist, free-lance writer, architectural commentator, broadcaster, and television personality who was popular in England in the 1960s and 1970s and was active in the campaigning for the preservation of churches, buildings and landscape. He was knighted in 1969 and became poet laureate in 1972. During his time at Oxford University, Betjeman's active social life included writers such as Evelyn Waugh, Bryan Guiness, Graham Greene, and W.H. Auden. He married Penelope Ch...