Lot 229
  • 229

Townsend Warner, Sylvia

Estimate
25,000 - 35,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • autograph letters
A fine collection of 36 autograph letters signed ("Sylvia Townsend Warner" and "Sylvia"), 78 pages (various sizes, many on blue aeorgramme forms), Maiden Newton, Dorchester, Dorset, 16 November 1971–29 June 1978, to Ben Hellman, New York; some occasional dampstaining (not affecting legibility), some fraying at margins of aerogrammes.

Condition

Condition as described in catalogue entry.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

A splendid collection of amusing and wide-ranging letters by Sylvia Townsend Warner to her American friend, Ben Hellman.  In these unpublished letters, Townsend Warner muses on a wide range topics, including her work published in the New Yorker, her editor William Shawn, the cartoons of Charles Addams, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, Princess Margaret's marriage, Lady Murasaki, Maupassant, and Tristan Corbière.  She discusses the work of Isaac Beshevis Singer, whom she admires, and asks Hellman to explain to her what a dybbuk is. The revolution in Portugal, the citizens of East Berlin, and the topography of Long Island all come under her gaze.  A discussion of censorship and the film "The Exorcist," coupled with speculation on dybbuks, leads to a wonderful digession on upper-class American vampires: "Talking of Dybbuks, have you ever known a Vampire?  I knew a pair of them, mother and daughter, and they were an interesting study: affluent, cultured, with a lovely home in Connecticut & another in South Carolina.  Colonial Dames & all that.  They had thick white skins like kid-gloves and were built to last; as the daughter sucks on to this day.  They shared a strange characteristic: they were both monsters of self-pity, & as their various victims died of drink, exhaustion, obsession, despair, etc., they grieved their hearts out at how cruelly Fate undid everyone they loved & trusted.  There was an only son, his mamma's dearest prey; her morning draught & her nightcap.  His one interest in life was collecting relics of Napoleon.  During the brief spells of meeting them, I used to long to drop salt on them, to see if they would fall off as leeches do.  I have no experience with leeches."

Several of the early letters are in verse.  Included with the lot are several examples of Hellman's light verse.