Lot 308
Blunden, Edmund (1896-1974). 10 ALsS to his long time friend Siegfried Sassoon, "Dearest Siegfried": 2 of them folded air letters from Hong Kong, 1962 & 1964; 7 from Hall Mill, Long Melford, April-June 1966, and one from Mill House, Long Melford, n.d. 10pp., 8vo. The undated letter probably dates from c. 1961 since it refers to SS's "Collected Poems, 1908-56", published 1961 "I think some of those reviewers of us would in private, if they read it, admit that they had got things wrong." Also "The last of Stevens Cox's Hardy pamphlets is irritating me: it is by a lady who was a friend of Florence but contemptuous of T.H." From the University of Hong Kong, 22 Oct. 1962, he looks forward to living in Long Melford (SS bought the house for the family) and "I am reading a furiously detailed account of Verdun, by a Canadian writer, and it sounds as if the insanity all round was rather violent. But the Somme was apparently a more modern battle…I have the impression that the French infantry , grand lads, were comparatively untrained, perhaps all the same they could whistle. The generals look zoological." He also refers to the poems of Ivor Gurney. On 11th March 1964 he commiserates on the departure of SS's cook, "I can only offer one of our Chinese young ladies, if I could find one without fetters…"; he has heard that W.H. Auden will be a neighbour at Long Melford, "I knew him years ago, and we should have no great worries, except his bombastic noises about the Muses who anyway won't be very vigorous locally"; on 30th April 1966 he refers to his Oxford appointment [the Professorship of Poetry], "Then, old Robert [Graves, the previous holder] has written in his kindest style, with some unkind remarks on the poets now scoring. I must expect arguments on these when I am in Oxford." 5th "June 1966, concern at hearing that SS is in hospital; comments on the Test match, and "I rather think that among my Oxford lectures one on the poets of War I will annoy some of the boys: and yet, I found lately that many of the present generation are quite sensible, eager over the poets whom Eddie Marsh would nominate". On 28th June 1966 he mentions staying with Rupert Hart-Davis, who "is preparing a bibliography of me…" and "I grieve that we never met somewhere on the Western Front". 27th July 1966, "I have been looking through Yeats's poems and though they are often touched with beauty, do not at the moment see where the greatness is". On 8 Aug. 1966, referring to a request from The Times for a piece from him on the occasion of SS's 80th birthday, "I have reflected on it & think the best they can do…is to get an ordinary essay (in C. Lamb's way) from Dennis." 4 Sept. 1966, sending greetings, "My eternal blessings on you…", also "D. Silk must play a single-wicket match v. J. Snow soon on the Heytesbury ground, or else you & I will challenge them both." Also included is an ALS from Blunden to Dennis Silk, Hall Mill, 19.1.66, and another from Clare Ross (Blunden's daughter), 7th September 1962, regarding the purchase of the house in Long Melford. With Selected Letters of Siegfried Sassoon and Edmund Blunden, edited by Carol Rothkopf, 3 vols., 2012. Sassoon first met Blunden in May 1919 after the latter sent some of his verses to the Daily Herald where Sassoon was Literary Editor.
