Lot 304
Sassoon, Siegfried. A series of 36 ALsS to his childhood friend, Marjorie Forster, (from 1949, Mrs. Shaw), 1915–66. Many signed with monogram. Approx. 57pp.
November 9th [1915] The Huts, Litherland, Liverpool. Refers to the death of his brother Hamo (at Gallipoli in October), “It was a most awful blow”. “Litherland is not a cheerful place at present…I take a riding class of Sandhurst subs. You would be amused at some of the positions they adopt when riding”. 1 1/2pp. 4to. With envelope.
July l [1916] 25th Battn. RWF France. Condolences on the death of her mother , without mentioning the war, though July 1st marked the beginning of the battle of the Somme. 1/2p. 4to.
June 18 [1918] Weirleigh, Paddock Wood, Kent (his old home). Refers to the reception of “Counter Attack”. “The only review which has explained the book properly is in “The Nation” for June 16th. I should like you to read it, as I feel very strongly about the complacent attitude so many people adopt toward the war”. 1 1/2pp., 8vo.
August 21st [1918]. Lennel, Coldstream, Berwickshire. (a convalescent home for officers run by Lady Clem Waring). “I have done two or three short poems lately which you will like better than most of Counter-attack, which was not written for people like you, who understand what a wicked show war is”. 1p. 4to. (these last three letters in one envelope)
25th October [1928]. Hotel Foyot Paris [with Stephen Tennant]. Referring to Memoirs of a Fox Hunting Man, “My goodness it was a difficult book to write. There were many delightful things I longed to put in, such as the old days at Finchcocks which I remember so clearly, but I had to condense and simplify the narrative drastically...” 2pp., 8vo. with envelope
November 7th [1928]. Trianon Palace Versailles. “The woods round here are so beautiful that I am unwilling to leave…The success of “Memoirs” seems to continue & I expect the inhabitants of Brenchly & Matfield will be claiming a percentage of the profits!” 1 1/4pp, 8vo.
March 2nd 1929. n.p. “In 30 years, I trust, we shall be exchanging reminiscent remarks from our immense store of memories. Considering your outward appearance I find it difficult to believe that I danced with you 30 years ago!”1p., 8vo.
22nd March 1929. 23 Campden Hill Square. His mother’s illness; “I have been drudging, night after night…but I am only just hanging on [referring to the writing of Memoirs of an Infantry Officer]; “I have been reading an advance copy of a German book, well translated, “All Clear on the Western Front” by Remarque. It is a courageous but horrible book…” 2pp., 8vo.
24th July, [? 1929]. Breitenau, Garmisch. [a small pension in the Bavarian Alps run by Walther and Johanna Hirth] He is pleased that Marjorie was at the presentation of the Hawthornden Prize (for memoirs of a Foxhunting Man), “I think you ought to have been on the platform as the earliest reader of my works present”. He feels well and rested. 2pp., 8vo.
21st November 1929. Hotel Plaza Paris [with Stephen Tennant]. “If you want an exasperating but not uninteresting experience read R. Graves’s “Goodbye to all that” – I figure prominently & have been much enraged by the inaccuracies about me, & the general tone of self assertive tactless vulgarity”. 2pp., 8vo, with earlier envelope.
26th June, 1930. Wilsford Manor, Salisbury. He is busy keeping Stephen Tennant amused, who is ill with lung trouble, “…every evening I take a little horse exercise on the downs…it is a queer life, but quite pleasant, as this place is absolutely perfect.” 2pp., 8vo.
5th July, 1930. Wilsford Manor. He has written “a short introduction to a new edition of ‘Handley Cross’…at the urgent request of J.C. Squire”, but refuses to sign 200 copies demanded by the publishers, “This was the first I’d heard of it” and “ Why am I sitting here at Ld. Grey’s writing table – to all intents & purposes, the guardian of S. Tennant?” 2pp., 8vo.
September 1930. 23 Campden Hill Square. “Your letter about my book is the sort of thing which is worth more to me than several columns in the Press!” [ referring to Memoirs of an Infantry Officer]. 1/2p., 8vo. With envelope
26th September, 1930. Campden Hill Square. He has seen the play “On the Spot” starring Charles Laughton; declined to take Stephen [Tennant] to Colorado and “I am rather proud of the new Ariel Poem…Stephen’s drawing is exquisite, isn’t it?” 2pp., 8vo.
May 23rd, n.d. 1, Raymond Buildings, Gray’s Inn. “I am off to my new job tomorrow & (entre nous) in an awful panic of making silly mistakes, but shall have to look fierce, I suppose, & perhaps all will be well.”1p., 8vo.
7th May, 1931. Hotel Monte Verita, Ascona. He is taking a holiday from looking after Stephen at Wilsford, and “I see no one except W. T. Walton, who…comes up to the hotel to use a piano on which he is completing his choral work “Belshassar’s Feast”. 2pp., 8vo. Enclosing an ALS in pencil from Margot, Lady Oxford, 2nd March 1931
3rd November, 1936. 18 Hanover Terrace. Expressing delight at the birth of his son, George, “very like his father”, and “I have often told Hester of you & our long friendship & all the things which weren’t in Memoirs of a Foxhunting Man”. 1p, 8vo., with envelope
12th July, 1938. Heytesbury House. Inviting Marjorie to stay and referring to his new book [The Old Century], “I have an idea that you will like it better than the last one. Anyhow it is far the happiest book I have written.” 1p, 8vo.
22nd June, 1939 Heytesbury House. “I am enchanted by your photograph of me & George – much the best ever taken!” 1p., 8vo. (the last two letters in one envelope)
28th January 1939. “The Old C [entury]has done very well, considering that times are bad for bookselling. Over 10,000 sold so far, & many compliments bestowed on me.” Enclosing a typed letter from the Pen Club of America asking him to speak, with self caricature in margin. 1p., 8vo. with envelope
30th November 1940. Heytesbury House. “We are very quiet. Scarcely see a soul. A dozen refugee children are capably controlled by a Scotch matron in the back regions”. And “Last winter I concocted about half of a sequel to The Old Century, but it feels absurd to go on with it now.” 1p., 8vo.
17th June, 1942. Heytesbury House. He refers to his latest book [The Weald of Youth]; Georg’s unruly behaviour, worries about his nephew Hamo on active service in Libya, and relief that Glen Byam Shaw has got to India. “Will this nightmare end this year?, and he hopes she will pay a visit. 2pp., 8vo., with envelope
4th November, 1942. Heytesbury House. Domestic duties prevail, due to wartime lack of staff, but again he writes about The Weald of Youth, “As you say Chap 3 is a sound bit of work. I re-wrote it again & again, though wishing that I could have recaptured even more of the reality of those happily remembered days when we were all so unaware of the incredible ‘future’ which has overtaken us…” He writes amusingly about the bevy of Guards Division wives living in a large house nearby, their “goings on”, and “general atmosphere of ‘The Tatler’. 2pp., 8vo.
19th December, 1943. Heytesbury House. Further domestic troubles including having to clear part of the house which has been requisitioned by the War Office for a USA General, Staff and 12 servants; though he goes to London for a dinner given by “my grand cousin Lady Cholmondeley” to meet Wavell “who admires my works & wanted to meet me…And a miraculous meal it was – with D. MacCarthy & Sir R. Storrs (a noisy bounder) there too.” 2pp., 8vo. , with envelope
25th December 1946. Heytesbury House. “Toiling away at my life of Meredith…I’ve spent a solitary Xmas Day – not altogether regretting it…” The corrected proofs of the collected edition of his poetical works disappeared in the post, “So I’ve got to do it all again!” 2pp., 8vo
6th October, 1949. Heytesbury House. Congratulations on her marriage to Dr. Shaw; problems with Hester and George. 2pp., 8vo.
27th November 1950. Heytesbury. Further troubles with Hester and George; and “My only other news is that Mr. Attlee has given me a C.B.E….I don’t really want it, but have accepted…These official labels of ‘distinction’ don’t seem to me suitable for poets & such like”.1 1/2pp., 8vo.
11th September, 1950. Heytesbury House. George’s scholarship to Oundle; Hester moving furniture etc. from her house in Salisbury “filling up 8 rooms at the top of the house”. 2pp., 8vo.
30th March 1951. Heytesbury. Letter of condolence. 1p., 8vo.
16th December 1951. Heytesbury. He has given a talk on poetry at Oundle, where his son George is at school. He is appalled by a request from Picture Post to send a photographer to take pictures of ‘the Foxhunting Man’. “Little did you forsee such opportunities for publicity for me when you and I followed the Eridge…” 2pp., 8vo. with envelope
24th February 1955. Heytesbury. Delighted by George’s Science Scholarship to King’s College Cambridge; visit of two young men from local radio in Bristol, who record him reading “a few poems”; he is invited to the presentation of new colours to the RWF Bttn. near Swindon by the Queen, “what a wonderful girl!” 2pp., 8vo.
11th October, 1956. Heytesbury. Gives news of George’s marriage to Stephanie; praise for Miss Benn his housekeeper; visit to Stratford to see the plays and the Byam-Shaws. 2pp., 8vo. with envelope
11th March 1958. HH. Owing to workmen and the cold, he hopes she will come and stay soon after Easter “pleasanter in all ways – (except that you are always pleasant – graceful compliment to former ball-room partner – can I have Songes d’Automne – and The Choristers?)” 1p., 8vo.
23rd June 1958. Heytesbury. Thanks for the book by Julian Fane and he is sending a typescript of “my Catholic poem”, which will be out soon in the Downside review and reprinted as a booklet, “for the edification, I hope, of the faithful.” 1p, with envelope
20th July 1964. HH. New cook, a Belgian widow with very sweet and intelligent daughter; visit to London, staying with Alan Lascelles for Literary Society dinner at the Garrick Club, where he sat next to John Betjeman, “which I did enjoy, as he is so amusing & a kindred spirit about poetry.” After a talk at the Austrian Embassy drinks party with cousin Sybil Cholmondeley, “How can I cope with people as high up in the social sphere? A. Lascelles is different – was at Marlborough with me, & is quite unworldly, though 100 per cent of it through his associations with Royalty & the Peerage. But for him I would never go to London…” 2pp., 8vo.
29th July 1966. HH. Medical problems; and “there has been a blizzard of requests to interview me and T.V. me but am staving them off…to tell the truth all this homage doesn’t appeal to me strongly” [80th birthday]; he has made the house and land over to George, “How I hate money, and the mad materialism of the age we exist in, O, for the garden parties and tennis tournaments of long ago, and people behaving like gentlefolk!” 2pp., 8vo., with envelope
With photograph of Edmund Blunden and note from him on verso, presumably to Marjorie, from Hall Mill, Long Melford, Suffolk, 10.1.66, “We are worried about S.S. who seems to be so easily depressed”.
Marjorie, nee Stirling, was the daughter of Judge Sir James Stirling, who lived at Finchcocks, near Weirleigh in Kent, and SS saw her often as a child. She married Cecil Charles Forster, a retired tea planter, in 1914. She is referred to in chapter 3 of The Weald of Youth as an early dancing partner at local balls “in the days before motor-cars were much in use” and “ ‘Do you reverse?…How those words bring my silly self back to me, with my inability to make my white ties look as effortless as other young men’s…”
These letters and the presentation copies of his books were given to Dennis and Diana Silk by Marjorie’s son John Forster.
We are grateful to Max Egremont for providing the information about Marjorie’s background.
