BIB_ID
456090
Accession number
MA 23931.17
Creator
Dowson, Ernest Christopher, 1867-1900, sender.
Credit line
Purchased on the Drue Heinz Fund for Twentieth-Century Literature, 2025.
Description
1 item (2 pages) ; 21.4 x 13.8 cm, folded; 21.4 x 27.5 cm, unfolded
Notes
Written from Sophia House, Bloomsbury, on the blank fourth page of a printed, folded flyer advertising Dowson's translation of Laclos' "Les Liasons Dangereuses."
Inscribed on first page in a different hand, presumably O'Riordan's: Autumn of '97 or spring '98.
Inscribed on first page in a different hand, presumably O'Riordan's: Autumn of '97 or spring '98.
Provenance
Sotheby's, 11 March 1968, lot 773; Barry Humphries (1934-2023; bookplate); Christie's, London, "Barry Humphries: The Personal Collection," 13 February 2025.
Summary
Expressing pleasure at the idea of his work being translated into Dutch; lamenting his own lack of knowledge of the language, which will hamper his appreciation of the translator Van Houten's work; telling O'Riordan that he is still in London tending to "financial transactions" but he hopes to "fly away" to France upon their conclusion; asking him to "come & dine with me" before then; asking him to "excuse the flippancy of my note-paper & my language, if you can guess the sadness of my heart."
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