Lot 54
Lucas, F. L. (1894-1967)
Collection of letters to F. L. Lucas
Auction: 16 June 2026 from 10:00 BST
Description
Cunard, Nancy (1896-1965). ‘Man Ship Tank Gun Plane’, East Chaldon, Dorchester, 1944. Typed poem signed, 3 leaves, secured with a contemporary paperclip, inscribed at head of first leaf ‘For F. L. Lucas, this copy, from Nancy Cunard’, together with 2 typed letters signed, each on 2 leaves, both concerning Cunard's attempts to publish an anthology of poems on France in association with La France Libre, and variously discussing Norman Douglas ('he says that he knew a beautiful and charming Greek youth whom you knew'), the state of French literature under Nazi occupation, Cunard's desire to travel to France ‘as soon as our armies go’;
Maugham, W. Somerset (1874-1965). Autograph letter signed, c.1935. Single sheet (13.5 x 21cm), written on both sides in blue ink, Maugham's Villa Mauresque letterhead in red, discussing F. L. Lucas's translation of the French book Mount Peacock;
Quiller-Couch, Sir Arthur (1863-1944). Autograph letter signed, 1933. Single bifolium (17 x 12cm), written on 3 sides, with Quiller-Couch's Fowey letterhead, discussing Lucas's recent Warton lecture, with dismissive reference to T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound, also mentioning Robert Bridges and A. E. Housman, signed ‘Q';
and 5 others, from Hugh Dalton (economist and Labour chancellor of the exchequer), ‘Cecil’ (apparently Cecil Francis-Taylor, classicist and master at Clifton College), Sir John Tresidder Sheppard, Cambridge classicist, on the possibility of Lucas leaving Cambridge for a professorship at Edinburgh ('Nor do I think the Leavis attitude is in the ascent here …'), Walter De La Mare, on including a poem of Lucas's in an anthology, and Philip Noel-Baker (Labour politician and diplomat), a detailed opinion on the state of the British war effort, dated 1942 (a group)
Provenance
By direct descent from F. L. Lucas.