£1,088
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs | 644
Auction: 23 June 2021 at 11:00 BST
2 A.L.S. to Walter Keir, 18th Feb. 1962, discussing Crichton Smith's poem & Macdiarmid on Hume "Smith's poem is very impressive, in parts anyway" "The Macdiarmid thing on Hume was awful. Strange that such a great poet should manifest himself so boringly in prose! The thing sounded just like the lectures MacDiarmid gives, hellish!...", 2pp, 6 Well Park, Stromness; and 8th Jan. 1968 "the press cutting was uplifting to the soul, but alas, I have a worldly scale inside me that tells me soberly just why my limitations and abilities are. I can turn out a tale like any journeyman, and have the cunning to hide defects with flourishes... it has been a strange winter with me. My mother dies in November so I live here all alone... the Society of Authors offered me a travelling grant of £250 to travel abroad and meet foreign writers. I hope they consider Ireland "abroad" because they're the only authors I'd particularly care to meet. I don't particularly care for authors as a race - so many of them are vain, egotistical & boring (of course there are dear exceptions), 3 pages, 6 Well Park, Stromness;
3 autograph letters to Harry S.M. Taylor (Periodicals Dept. University Library, Edinburgh), 2 from Tor na Dee Sanatorium, Milltimber, Aberdeen, 1st Jan 1961 and 21st Feb. 1961, (1) "the date above should give you some insight into the plane of high seriousness on which my life is now conducted", saying "if I had the money I would organise a [ ] bus trip, with the following 20 persons invited (this trip would be on a Sabbath - there would be suitable refreshments, Milne's pies, six bottles of Glen Grant, 200 tins of export and 6 packets of Rowntree's Fruit Gums for HSMT - I reckon the entire trip would cost me £30... - J. Broom, P. Hughes, S.G. Smith, HSM Taylor, W. Maclean, D. Marcarthur, J. Durkin, R. Thomson [other names will be issued soon like Mr Kennedy forming his cabinet]. Tickets will be issued from this office in due course, as soon as the sonnets appear... Prayers at the beginning and end would be offered by Rev. John Broom, the Humanist Father... Now to be serious. Groping my way carefully through medieval history, I'm amazed at the highly organised rituals that pervaded every level of human activity... I know something about the Orkney midsummer fertility rites.. I have learned in a devious manner that you yourself are an initiate into some of the more modern mysteries. I will indicate to you how tremendously exciting are some of the things that go on under the banal surface of life, closer to the roots and sources of creation... There were also a rite of Poets of Architects, of Knights, Merchants etc... probably the rite took place in darkened room with appropriate symbolism on the walls, and the questions coming out of need darkness..." this is followed by a long passage with the imagined Interrogation of the new king. "the rite of Poets is even more fascinating. I am not at liberty of course to discuss the least word or action of it, except to say that if definitely exists and is celebrated today. In Scotland, at the moment, there are four initiates. Useless to challenge them - they wouldn't betray themselves by the least flicker of an eyelid. I only tell you these things because I know you will respect the mystery..." 9 pages; (2) to Harry, "I had hoped that my secret work here would be finished in time for my return to HQ in Edinburgh next Monday, along with that hidden Jesuit, Fr. John Broom", saying that "my superiors Mgr Boyle and Canon Redeye wish me to stay for a further week, in order to complete my report. The report, I think, when it is read at the secret conclave, will be a rather staggering one. It suggests for example that the arts are no longer necessary in our society - the poet is going the way of the witch and the miracle-working saint. No longer neccessary but that is not to say that they will no longer exist in the mechanistic society of the future in other explosive forms. It suggests too that the artist have betrayed their calling - they have been seduced by the bitch-goddesses "Beauty" and "Culture" - but the true function of poetry and art has always been necromancy, to effect desired changes by a unique and mysterious manipulation of symbols", 2 pp. Tor na Dee Hospital, 21 Feb. 1961; (3) to Harry [Taylor] "I can just picture the scene at Milne's with Miss Cartrwright, Mr McLean, Mr Callum Campbell, &c.... Here on my Sabine farm I live in great quietness", referring to Taylor's offer to help him obtain a post of some kind in the book line. "Here there is no suitable work. One comes to hate the continual harassment by National Insurance and Ministry of Labour. I might fit in for a time in some bookshop or library", referring to Arthur Swanson, John Broom, referring to Hogmanay activities on Orkney, and quoting Wallace Stevens poetry, 4pp, 6 Well Park, Stromness, 2 Dec. 1961; (4) Initialled postcard to Harry Taylor, (5) Christmas card, signed by G.M.B. with short autograph poem lampooning the card "Saints crowned with flying saucers", 4 lines, with beneath it "A fragment of original Mackay Brown, quite priceless, holograph"; (6), Printed proem "Maes Howe Winter", with printed illustration by Simon Fraser, inscribed "from George"
Note: A particularly good collection of autograph letters.