Letter from John Dreyfus, London, to Thomas Balston, 1960 February 15 : typescript signed.

Concerning a threatened rail strike, mentioning a "penny-plain-tuppence-coloured" toy theater given to his son Michael by Dreyfus's mother and recalling that Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson had taken over the stock of Benjamin Pollock, "and made a new company to carry on the tradition, using the old lithographic plates."; discussing a set of wood engravings Reynolds Stone created for (Herman Melville's novel) Omoo, a lecture given by John Hadfield at the Victoria & Albert Museum about (Robert) Gibbings, and a reception he and (his wife) Irene attended in the compay of Reynolds Stone "for members of the Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry"; stating that he went to see Brendan Behan's "The hostage", remarking "What poor stuff it is when compared to Sean O'Casey.", and observing that while the producer Joan Littlewood "gives the raggle-taggle plays tremendous pace and liveliness ... the best producers seem to shine with second-rate plays" and seem "inhibited" by a well written "piece of play-writing"; mentioning that he is reading The status seekers by "American writer Vance Packard", and that he had lunch with the artist Michael Ayrton "who expounded at some length the mysteries of the art dealing world."; noting that he had lunch at the Garrick Club, where he saw "Morison and Carter" having lunch with (the actor) Frank Lawton, as well as the actor Kenneth Moore; breaking off with explanation that he must write a letter for Evan Gill "who has been laid up in hospital for the past weeks, but who now seems at last to be on the mend."