Description
Autograph letter signed to Robert Welsh, Solicitor, Ayr. One page, 4to, Villa Fontana Vecchia, Taormina, Sicily, 9 December 1921, written in response to the unexpected news that Lawrence had won the James Tait Black Memorial prize for his novel The Lost Girl (1920). After writing that he has received no communication on the subject, Lawrence acknowledges being "especially pleased at having at last some spark of friendly recognition out of Britain. It has been mostly abuse." After making arrangements for the deposit of the £100 prize in his London account, Lawrence asks for the "name of the Professor of English Literature at Edinburgh University" - the prize is traditionally judged by senior staff in the English department at Edinburgh University, letter tipped into a first edition copy of the novel, bookplate of J[ames] T[ait] B[lack], Underscar, Keswick
Footnote
Note: The prize for The Lost Girl came after an especially lean time for Lawrence. In 1919 he had been seriously ill with influenza and had been reduced to writing a school history book for money. Scraping together enough money, he and Frieda left England for Italy which turned out to be "the real end of his life in England" ("ODNB"). After stays in the Abruzzi mountains and Capri, Frieda and Lawrence settled in Sicily at the Villa Fontana Vecchia where he embarked on a period of productive work including the composition of The Lost Girl.
A.& C. Black was founded by Adam Black who was a publisher and politician. He opened a bookshop in 1807 in Edinburgh. He was born on 20 Feb 1784 in Edinburgh and died 24 Jan 1874 also in Edinburgh. He took his nephew, Charles Black (1834-1854), into partnership with him in his publishing business, establishing A. and C. Black in 1834.
The firm acquired copyright to the Encyclopaedia Britannica and in 1851 they purchased the remainder of the copyright on Sir Walter Scott's works. Adam Black retired in 1870, his three younger sons, James Tait Black (1826-1911), Francis Black (1830-1892) and Adam William Black (1836-1898), who were already in the business with him took over the firm. Francis Black, Adam Black's third son was admitted into the partnership in 1855. Adam William Black, Adam Black's fourth son was admitted into partnership in 1858. A. & C. Black moved to Soho Square, London in 1889.
The firm was a partnership from 1807-1914, and then became a public limited company.
The firm bought the copyright of Sir Walter Scott's Waverley nNovels in 1851. A. & C. Black also published early P.G. Wodehouse, including Psmith Journalist, 1915, The Pothunters, 1915, Mike: a public school story, 1916, Psmith in the City: a sequel to Mike, 1919.
Adam Rimmer Black (1865-1936), son of James Tait Black was bought into partnership in 1891. The James Tait Black memorial prizes were established in 1919 by Janet Coats, the widow of James Tait Black, to be awarded annually for the best work of fiction and the best biography published in the previous year. The prizes, which are still presented by The University of Edinburgh, are Britain's oldest literary awards. They are the only prizes of their kind to be presented by a university and they have acquired an international reputation for recognising excellence in biography and fiction. Past fiction winners, apart from D.H. Lawrence, include Grahame Greene, E.M. Forster, Salman Rushdie, Zadie Smith and Ian McEwan. Past biography winners include Lytton Strachey, John Buchan, Lady Antonia Fraser and A.S. Byatt.