BIB_ID
289310
Accession number
MA 7606
Creator
Collins, Wilkie, 1824-1889.
Display Date
London, England, 1883 May 24.
Credit line
Purchased on the Gordon N. Ray Fund, 2009.
Description
1 item (4 pages) ; 17.7 x 11.3 cm
Notes
Written on stationery embossed with Collins' monogram "WC" shot through with a quill, and "90, Gloucester Place, Portman Square. W." Signed Wilkie Collins.
Collins addresses the recipient as "My dear Collaborateur."
Collins began working on Rank and Riches in 1880, and it was produced by Edgar Bruce at the Adelphi Theatre on 9 June 1883, where, despite a strong cast, it was booed off the stage.
Robert du Pontavice de Heussey was a Breton author and translator of Collins' works into French.
Letter is unpublished.
Collins addresses the recipient as "My dear Collaborateur."
Collins began working on Rank and Riches in 1880, and it was produced by Edgar Bruce at the Adelphi Theatre on 9 June 1883, where, despite a strong cast, it was booed off the stage.
Robert du Pontavice de Heussey was a Breton author and translator of Collins' works into French.
Letter is unpublished.
Summary
Apologizing for his delay in writing and explaining that his failure to keep up their correspondence is due to a full schedule. Noting that rehearsals for his new play [Rank and Riches] occupy his mornings and afternoons and that his evenings "are passed prostrate in an armchair with a cigar and a volume of Scribe's plays." Wishing de Heussey success in Paris, regretting that Collins is "tied to London, unable to help [him]," and sending kind remembrances to de Heussey's brother. Commenting on the "Great Sarah" [Bernhardt], wondering whether there is any "chance of feeling in that illustrious woman which may tell her that she has died in the agonies of poison often enough? And that a complete change in her 'répertoire' might help her with the public?" Noting that these "are wild questions indeed!"
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