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Welcome to the David J. Holmes Autographs website. We specialize in rare books and manuscripts by 18th through 20th century English and American literary figures. Our inventory includes autographs, archives & manuscripts, first editions, presentation copies, association books and original drawings. We are actively purchasing single items or collections of autographs in our field.

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Autograph letter signed (initials), 2pp, 8vo, Duneville, Trusthorpe Road, Sutton-On-Sea, Lincolnshire, 7 September 1926. A letter written in frustration to his sister-in-law, Else: "Those fools are still delaying beginning the play [Lawrence's "David"]. We go to London on Saturday . . . [b]ut I'm annoyed & bored beforehand. But I doubt if we could get to Bavaria before the end of the month. Too late! I shall have to wait till spring. . . . I expect we shall be in Baden, at least a day or two -- travel over Paris. So we shall see you. . . . It's dull weather here -- a grey sky, a grey sea. My thoughts are turning south. The swifts are already going, & the swallows are gathering to go. Nothing to stay for." Creased at folds; fine.

Autograph letter signed, 2pp, 7 September 1926. To Else.
LAWRENCE, D.H.
Autograph letter signed (initials), 2pp, 8vo, Duneville, Trusthorpe Road, Sutton-On-Sea, Lincolnshire, 7 September 1926. A letter written in frustration to.. more
Price: $2,500.00

Collection of 4 autograph letters signed 1 autograph postcard signed and a manuscript poem signed, 5pp, 8vo & 12mo, Merton College, Oxford; 14 Chichele Mansions, London; and Woodstock Close, Oxford, 24 January 1932 to 7 December 1937, with one of the original envelopes. All to his friend Carlos H. Peacock. A sampling of the letters reads as follows: (24 January 1932) "Please abandon my Mr. too! I am to lunch next Thursday at Peterhouse, and shall emerge thence ready to take tea with you (& I hope Adrian & Stephanie) at 3:30, (and I must be at Trinity say 5 or 10 minutes before 5, so as to cause no anxiety about authors' elusive ways). Shall I come to Fitzwilliam House?''; (12 Sept. 1937) "So that is what you're doing! Well, good luck to you, and if I can send along any promising young writers with substantial MSS I shall be glad to do it. I often find the promise, but it is usually of a metaphysical sort and not reduced to actual ink marks on sheets of paper. Adrian is often in my mind's eye.... I suppose you know Richard Cobden-Sanderson; if not, please set about it!.... My memory does not serve me about the poem you were so kind as to wish for in MS: if you will send me a little hint of its content, a first line for instance, I shall quickly dig it out and send you a copy. Meanwhile, do not let literature deprive you of literature....''; (24 Sept. 1937) "At last I have copied the poem and here it is. As you perhaps know, it's a little disturbing in more ways than one to spend much time with one's early writings! but it has given me pleasure to think you wished for the transcript. Can you persuade my old playmate Adrian to show me some of his poems, for instance the limited edition?....''; and (7 Dec. 1937) "Forgive me for not saying yes. But if I slacken my rule about not writing introductions in books of poems by contemporaries I shall be in trouble; for I get many requests. Apart from that, my conviction is that these introductions do no good. Prejudices are created against the newcomer... it's supposed he is a protege of the old miscreant who ushers him in. Far best, and best to look back upon, if a poet sets out alone. Moreover, I shall be at liberty, I hope, to appear among your reviewers. Adrian was indeed as good as his word and I have set his poems among those that matter, and will matter in coming time.'' Still present is the poem entitled "Leisure'' (2pp, 4to, no place) "Copied for his friend Carlos Peacock by the writer, Edmund Blunden, in Sept. 1937.'' Blunden has copied this poem onto the blnk versos of two illustrations from a bookseller's catalogue. In very good condition.

Collection of 4 ALsS, 1 APCS and a manuscript poem signed, 5pp, 1932-7. To Carlos H. Peacock.
BLUNDEN, EDMUND.
Collection of 4 autograph letters signed 1 autograph postcard signed and a manuscript poem signed, 5pp, 8vo & 12mo, Merton.. more
Price: $950.00

Autograph letter signed ("F O'Connor"; on bottom of integral holograph mailing address leaf), 5 1/2pp, folio, London, 21 January n.y. A lengthy letter to Dr. Taylor at the Glasgow Liberator Office, on political and economic matters, in small part: ". . . when we turn to the political position of ministers, we find their difficulties nothing abated. When things come to the worst . . . the present administration discover, that notwithstanding the support which they are likely to receive from the Whig contention under the Whig reform Bill, that even their own men are compelled to yield to the voice of the nonelectors of the Country. . . . One man only supposes, his power equal to that of Canute the Dane, one man only has the folly to impose a barrier to the flood of knowledge, you find that, new meshes have been made, by the political fisherman, in order to catch the small fry. The line is also out, the hook is baited, with the illness of a judge in order that needy barristers may nibble and that others in progression may support; Resolutions of confidence in hostile members are part in order to hold them up to national admiration; to neutralize their opposition, if their cooperation cannot be insured. . . ." Torn in several places; some loss (paper patches and a few untended holes); soiled; leaves bound together; worn).<p> Feargus Edward O'Connor (1794-1855); Irish Chartist leader.

Autograph letter signed, 5 1/2pp, folio, London, 21 January n.y. To Dr. Taylor.
O'CONNOR, FEARGUS
Autograph letter signed ("F O'Connor"; on bottom of integral holograph mailing address leaf), 5 1/2pp, folio, London, 21 January n.y... more
Price: $750.00

Autograph manuscript signed of the final semichoruses in 'The Dynasts", being the closing chorus of the After Scene, beginning "Last as first the question rings / Of the Will's long travailings . . . .", one page, 4to, n.p., n.d. Written in blue ink on the recto of a single sheet of fine paper, with autograph revisions in two lines, and signed by Hardy in black ink. See Purdy (p. 131) who describes this manuscript leaf, and notes that it " . . . gives evidence (deleted foliation, marks of sewing, &c.) of having been part of an earlier MS. of the After Scene or perhaps the entire work." Folds; lightly soiled and worn, otherwise in very good state, in a half morocco slipcase. From the collection of Frederick B. Adams, Jr., with his bookplate. <p> Included with the manuscript is a postcard showing Max Beerbohm's well-known depiction of the Red Cross Sale held at Christie's on 22 April 1918, with Adams's note on the back: "Hardy signed this MS and sent it to the Red Cross Sale. In the front row Gosse is pointing and Hardy listening."

Autograph manuscript signed of the final semichoruses in 'The Dynasts", one page, 4to, n.p., n.d.
HARDY, THOMAS
Autograph manuscript signed of the final semichoruses in 'The Dynasts", being the closing chorus of the After Scene, beginning "Last.. more
Price: $13,500.00

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