BIB_ID
410332
Accession number
MA 4705.13
Creator
Cockerell, Sydney Carlyle, Sir, 1867-1962.
Display Date
1944 October 19.
Credit line
Purchased on the Gordon N. Ray Fund, 1991.
Description
1 item (4 pages) ; 20.2 x 12.6 cm + envelope
Notes
Cockerell gives the place of writing as "21 Kew Gardens Rd / Kew, Richmond, Surrey." Kew is now considered part of greater London.
This is the first of two letters written to Sassoon on this date. As Cockerell explains at the end of this letter, the first letter provides information to Sassoon about the poet Wilfrid Scawen Blunt for an unspecified writing project (possibly the new volume of Sassoon's memoirs), and the second letter is in response to a letter of Sassoon's from September 19th.
Envelope with stamp and postmarks addressed to: "Captain Siegfried Sassoon MC / Heytesbury House / Warminster / Wilts." The envelope may have been used to send both this and the following letter (MA 4705.14), written on the same date.
This is the first of two letters written to Sassoon on this date. As Cockerell explains at the end of this letter, the first letter provides information to Sassoon about the poet Wilfrid Scawen Blunt for an unspecified writing project (possibly the new volume of Sassoon's memoirs), and the second letter is in response to a letter of Sassoon's from September 19th.
Envelope with stamp and postmarks addressed to: "Captain Siegfried Sassoon MC / Heytesbury House / Warminster / Wilts." The envelope may have been used to send both this and the following letter (MA 4705.14), written on the same date.
Provenance
Purchased from the bookseller Quaritch at Sotheby's, London, 18 July 1991, lot 25.
Summary
Telling Sassoon that he can trust "Edith Finch's book" implicitly (probably a reference to Finch's biography of Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, published in 1938); writing that he "gave a great deal of attention to the MS as well as to the proofs & altered anything that seemed to me out of focus, whether praise or blame. I have been looking at it since your letter came and I am much impressed by Miss Finch's sureness of touch. She spent years on the book and wrote it again and again"; discouraging Sassoon from trusting an article by Judith Wentworth (Blunt's daughter) and calling her "unbalanced and vindictive"; giving a detailed account of his friendship with Blunt, from their first meeting at William Morris's house in 1892, when Blunt was "52 and amazingly handsome," and onwards; commenting on Blunt: "I saw an immense amount of him from first to last and I cannot recall a single instance of discourtesy, abruptness, or lack of consideration on his part during all those years. On the contrary I remember many acts of thoughtfulness, kindness, and generosity. We met on equal terms and understood each other completely"; discussing Blunt's activism: "His crusades on behalf of downtrodden races, the Irish, the Indians, the Egyptians etc made him unpopular in official circles -- But they were perfectly genuine & subsequent events have justified them"; qualifying some of his praise of Blunt; referring to Sassoon's meeting with Blunt around 1920; mentioning photographs of a house, possibly Newbuildings; describing the hallway: "In the hall the most prominent object is Morris's tapestry of the Adoration of the Magi, designed by Burne-Jones [...] Between the windows is Blunt's admirable portrait of himself as a boy. On the wall I recall various oriental weapons and the skin of a peacock. Many peacocks haunted the precincts of the house"; describing Blunt's clothing: "I have forgotten the correct name for the Arab cloak Blunt wore -- abba or abeyah -- you had better just call it a Bedouin cloak"; encouraging him to "[a]sk me as many questions as you like, &, if you think well, let me see the proofs"; writing that he will now respond to Sassoon's letter from September 19th, "but will do so independently & not mix it up with Blunt."
Catalog link
Department