BIB_ID
292458
Accession number
MA 1625.64
Creator
Dowson, Ernest Christopher, 1867-1900.
Display Date
[1889 Oct. 16].
Credit line
Gift of the Fellows with the special assistance of H. Bradley Martin, 1954.
Description
1 item (6 p.) ; 17.7 cm
Notes
Dated in Flower, p. 107.
Part of a large collection letters from Ernest Dowson to his close friend Arthur Moore, the English solicitor and writer, with whom Dowson wrote four collaborative novels. Items are cataloged individually; see related collection record (MA 1625) for more information.
With a Christian cross surrounded by RIP at the head of the letter.
Written from B[ridge] D[ock] on mourning paper. Addressed to Cher Vieux. Signed "The most wretched binger who ever gave the shifter points."
Part of a large collection letters from Ernest Dowson to his close friend Arthur Moore, the English solicitor and writer, with whom Dowson wrote four collaborative novels. Items are cataloged individually; see related collection record (MA 1625) for more information.
With a Christian cross surrounded by RIP at the head of the letter.
Written from B[ridge] D[ock] on mourning paper. Addressed to Cher Vieux. Signed "The most wretched binger who ever gave the shifter points."
Provenance
Sale (Sotheby's, 20 December 1954, lot 205); gift of the Fellows with the special assistance of H. Bradley Martin in 1954.
Summary
A drunken letter describing debauchery and drinking. Hoping to see Moore soon in order to drink absinthe, for "what is one more drink among so many?" Mentioning "it is an awfully weird feeling to feel as drunk as I do now at 11.30 AM" and prophesying his own "callid porpse." Stating "there is nothing in the universe supportable save the novels of H[enr]y James, & the society of little girls." Disparaging women and society, remarking that "the idea of the little girl is the only one which doesn't make for bloodiness." With a postscript asking for a plaque of Minnie (Terry, the child actress).
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